


Coming Full Circle

by Not From Stars (Shadowcat), random_chick



Category: Primeval
Genre: F/M, Multi, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-17
Updated: 2011-10-17
Packaged: 2017-10-24 17:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Not%20From%20Stars, https://archiveofourown.org/users/random_chick/pseuds/random_chick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being in love with the daughter of Captain Becker, Abby Maitland and Connor Temple isn't easy. It's even harder when you're the exact image of your uncle -- a man who hurt them more than anyone else ever has. However, Kahlil Pierce hasn't let that deter him -- especially when he knows that Niki Becker loves him just as much. When Niki doesn't return with the rest of her team after an excursion through an anomaly, Kahlil doesn't stop to think before he goes in to look for her. Finding his injured girlfriend was the easy part.  Trapped on the wrong side of anomaly with no way to get home, Kahlil has to use all of his skills to keep Niki safe while at the same time having faith that her family will find a way to bring them home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for OC_BigBang 2011 at LiveJournal.

There were times when, despite the particular arrangement of who was in charge, a spectator would be inflicted on the ARC team. A government spectator, but with Prospero ties. The ARC staff privately thought this was why it was always the same man sent, an attempt to appease all sides. If it really had been, though, they'd have picked someone who wasn't an exact duplicate of Philip Burton.

In looks, at least. In personality, Kahlil Pierce was darker than his scheming uncle in some ways. The less charitable members of the ARC staff -- most of them, in other words -- would say that was a hard thing to manage. The more charitable members of the staff -- Henry Quinn, Dani Temple, and Niki Becker -- would say... the exact same thing, to be honest, they'd just be a whole lot nicer about it.

At least, Niki would be nicer about it. She'd better be, after all; she was Pierce's girlfriend and had been for the past several months.

Not that he acknowledged it overmuch as he arrived at the ARC, only to find Niki in heated conversation with someone. He knew better than to draw attention to their relationship. Kahlil was many things; a stupid man was not one of them. He simply waited until the other person walked away before he approached her.

"Hello, love." He smiled faintly. "Wasn't expecting to see you here today." He knew Niki was generally just part time at the ARC. "Whose day did you just ruin and why?"

Niki smiled tightly, but it was obvious that her anger wasn't directed at him. "He's an idiot," she said through her clenched jaw. "He had the balls to say that he didn't think it was in my father's best interest for me to be on the security team."

"I'm pretty sure your father knows what's in his own best interest." This was where Kahlil diplomatically left out the part where he brought up that _he_ didn't like her on the security team. Of course, he disliked it for entirely different reasons. Details, details.

"Both of the dads do and that guy is just pissed because Lester trusts me more."

"Love, he's an idiot. He can't help his mental deficits. Everybody here trusts you."

"I've earned the trust, though," she said quietly. "I don't like people like him implying that it was just handed to me because of who my parents are."

"The only thing handed to you was the opportunity," Kahlil said. "And there's nothing wrong with that."

She nodded. "That's what I think, too."

He pulled her in for a quick hug while there was nobody else in the hallway. "What're you up to for the rest of the day?"

"Nothing. I was on the firing range already. The rest of the afternoon is mine."

"I'm lurking the halls for a while," Kahlil said. "Exciting, I know." The dry tone of his voice said he was about as thrilled to be there as her family would be to find out he was there again.

She squeezed his hand. "Is something besides the usual bothering you?"

"I don't like that I get sent here, love. I'd rather leave the ARC alone. Damn government."

"I know," she murmured. "I know you'd rather leave the people to do their thing without helping the government annoy them."

"Though I have to admit, it _is_ entertaining to see just how much it takes to annoy Lester on any given day."

She laughed softly. "Henry is working with him today."

"And how's the little bureaucrat doing, anyway?" It'd been his nickname for Henry since the first time he'd met the younger man.

Niki smirked. "One of these days he's going kick your ass when he hears you call him that."

"I'd like to see him try."

She leaned against him. "I don't want to see the two of you fighting."

"Better fighting with him than fighting with anybody else in your family."

"And with Henry, you know he's not hoping you screw up so he can hurt you." Niki loved her mom and her dads, but they didn't trust Kahlil as much as she wanted them to.

"And he doesn't have quite the familial psychosis in regards towards protecting you," Kahlil said. "At least, not to the degree your sister does."

"That's because he has to split his protective tendencies between me and Dani, whereas Dani focuses on me."

"I'll take whatever I can get," Kahlil said with a faint laugh as he stepped back, hands going into his jacket pockets. "Care to walk with me for a bit, see where we end up? See how long we can avoid running into your family this time?"

"This sounds like a good plan," Niki said with a smile.

"So, how's the day been?" he asked as they started walking. "Besides the jackass from a couple minutes ago, that is."

She shrugged. "It's been pretty normal. Just going over the field notes with Dad and Mom and working on the firing range. I came closer to Dad's score today."

"Very good," he said with a smile. "I'm proud of you."

She grinned. "Thanks, that means a lot to me."

"I'm always proud of you, though." He had to resist the urge to wrap an arm around her shoulders.

"I hope you always feel some pride in the things I do. I know you don't like all of them."

"I may not like all of them, but I will always be proud of you for doing them well."

Niki nodded. "Why do something if you're not going to do it the best you can?"

"That's my girl," he said with a smile.

That would, of course, be when they ran into a member of her family. One of her fathers, to be precise.

"Mr. Temple," Kahlil said, giving the older man a slight nod.

Connor stepped back from Kahlil just slightly; it was usually harder for him to face Kahlil than it was for the others. "Kahlil."

"Hey Dad." Niki stepped up and gave her father a warm hug. "How are things with you this afternoon?"

"They're fine," Connor replied, returning the hug. "Reasonably productive, too."

"Oh? Have you done something that's going to make Mom laugh or try to hide you from Dad for a bit?"

"Possibly a little bit of both." And that would be Connor hiding a grin.

"Dad..."

"This is what happens when you let me work with Jess, I've told people this before."

Kahlil was doing an admirable job of hiding a laugh.

"What did the two of you do, Dad?"

"We may or may not have tweaked a few of the systems..."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "How badly did you tweak the systems? Am I going to have to placate Dani tonight?"

"No!" Connor protested. "Well... maybe. It was all Jess's fault, though. I swear."

Niki pulled back and gave him a look she had learned from Abby and Becker. "Dad, I know very well that you and Aunt Jess take turns coming up with ideas. Last time she got blamed. This time, it's your turn. What happened?"

"Jess is trying to fix it. But it's not like we _broke_ anything."

"Daddy..." Oh now that was playing dirty, but she knew he melted when she and Dani called him that.

"I'll go see if Jess got everything straightened out," Connor said finally.

"How much trouble are you in with Mom and Dad?"

"Enough that they told me I'd have to deal with Dani's resultant freak-out."

Kahlil couldn't help laughing at that. "Just turn her over to Henry. He never minds dealing with her."

"I know how to handle my family, thank you, Kahlil," Connor said coolly.

"Be nice," Niki warned. "Or I'll call Dani right now." She reached for Kahlil's hand.

Kahlil took Niki's hand, lacing their fingers together. He understood Connor's antagonism, though, for all he didn't like it.

"Niki, I'll see you later," Connor said, giving the two of them a brusque nod.

"Dad, don't be like that, please?"

Connor just looked at his daughter helplessly for a moment before turning and walking away.

"It's okay, Nik," Kahlil said softly. "I'm a reminder of a dark part of his life. I understand that."

Niki was hurt that Connor had walked away, but she swallowed. "But you're not the one that caused so much pain. It's not right to hold you accountable."

"It's hard for him to do anything else when he looks at me and sees my uncle."

Niki swallowed again, trying to bury the hurt. "You're not to blame for your family."

"Give him a little time," Kahlil said, squeezing her hand. "He'll apologize to you later, you know he will."

She nods. "I know. It tears Mom and the Dads up when Dani and I are upset. But, I also know it hurts you, too."

"I'm used to it," Kahlil said with a shrug. "Your parents aren't the only ones who dislike my uncle for things. I've grown up with this treatment."

"I don't like that you get the same treatment from my family," Niki said, her voice sad. "And it's not just my parents, it's all of the family here. I've seen it."

"My uncle wasn't exactly kind to this place," Kahlil said as they started walking again. "And you have to admit, the people here have long memories when it comes to someone hurting their loved ones."

She sighed and there was sadness coloring her words. "Why would you even want to be with me when this is the reception you get?"

"Because I love you," he said simply.

"But is loving me worth the way you get treated, Kahlil?"

"I'd put up with anything if it meant I got to have you."

She stopped walking and turned to look at him. "You really mean that, don't you?"

"I don't say things I don't mean," he replied. "At least, I don't say them to you."

"I hope you don't ever come to regret that, love."

"I never will."

She squeezed his hand as they continued to walk, though her mood was changed now.

For his part, Kahlil didn't pull his hand away even though it wasn't the most professional of things to be holding hands with his girlfriend while working. The world could sod it at the moment.

Which was good because Niki needed that contact. The moment she heard someone approaching, she'd let go because she didn't want Kahlil to deal with any more trouble at the ARC than he already did.

"You know I love you, right?" he asked after a few minutes.

She looked over at him. "Of course I do."

"Just wanted to hear you say it." He smiled at her. "Can't fault a guy for liking it when his incredibly beautiful girlfriend knows he loves her and is utterly confident in it."

That caused her to laugh softly. "I love you, Kahlil, and I know without a doubt that you love me."

"I'm glad you're willing to stick by me," he said. "Because it'd be easy for you to cut and run, given how much your family dislikes me. Not that you _would_. I know that. But you _could_."

"No, I couldn't. My heart is too involved."

"I'm sorry for the trouble and pain it's caused for you to be involved with me. I know it hasn't been easy."

"Kahlil, don't. There's nothing I want your apologies for."

"I'm just grateful you and your heart want to stick it out, is all I'm saying."

"I love you." To her it was as simple as that.

And he was grateful for that fact, more grateful than he knew how to communicate to her.

Niki let go of his hand as they came around the corner and passed through the hallway that opened into the main room of the ARC controls.

Kahlil did his best to look casual as they walked into the room. He glanced around, taking a mental note of who was there.

There were several people there, but most notable were Jess, Matt and Dani. They were at the main terminal and Jess looked like she was getting lectured by Dani while Matt was trying not to laugh.

"Looks like Jess is really hearing it from your sister," Kahlil murmured, fighting back a smile.

Niki nodded. "I should go save her. Dani unhappy about the computers is never good."

"Go on, love." He gave her a gentle nudge. "I'll be around."

She gave him a small smile and then hurried to the trio. "Aunt Jess!"

Jess looked up, clearly relieved. "Niki, tell your sister I didn't _mean_ to break anything! Connor came up with something and I thought it was a good idea so we tried it and it didn't work the way we wanted it to and -- "

" _Breathe_ ," Matt said, snickering despite himself.

"Not helping, Uncle Matt," Niki said, her eyes full of laughter. She turned to her sister. "Dani, I already saw Dad and he said that he and Aunt Jess can fix whatever they did."

Dani had been bristling like an overprotective mama cat for at least the past ten minutes. "They still broke it!" she said defensively.

"But they're going to fix it so they don't have to deal with you, me, _and_ Henry," Niki said in the voice that Henry had dubbed _Sister Soother_ when they were little.

"And if I get upset, Henry gets upset." And that was a little bit scary to most people.

"Exactly."

There was a tense moment where Dani looked like she was about to say something else. Finally, all she said to Jess was, " _Please_ try to stop breaking my things?"

Niki hid a smile and reached for her sister's hand.

Dani just grumped a little and took Niki's outstretched hand.

"Come on. Leave them to fix it before Mom and Dad get here." She gave her sister a small smile. "I saw Daddy in the hall." Daddy. Meant that she and Connor hadn't parted happily.

Dani pulled Niki out into the hall. "Talk to me, Nik."

Niki shrugged. "Kahlil."

"How bad was it this time?"

"That's the thing. It wasn't a fight or anything. He just... Kahlil tried to be teasing about calming you down. Said that Henry would help." Niki closed her eyes. "Dad made a comment and I told him to be nice. He walked away from me."

"Oh, Nik." Dani was angry at her father for that. "I'm so sorry."

She shrugged, trying to hide how hurt she felt by it. "It's no big deal. He doesn't like Kahlil and won't even give him a chance to prove he's not his uncle."

"Dad did fall for Burton's bullshit pretty hard," Dani said. "Doesn't surprise me it's hard for him to give Kahlil a chance. Still, though, he shouldn't have walked away like he did."

"No big deal," she said again. "It is what it is." Only her sister would be able to know that she was hurt by it.

"And it isn't fair," Dani said. "I mean, I might not like Kahlil but at least I don't walk away from you when you're with him."

"Kahlil loves me and is a good man."

"But he's a Burton, and I don't know if the parents will ever be able to see past that."

Niki sighed. "I guess I'm just lucky that it wasn't Mom this time. Kahlil gets sad and quiet every time he sees Mom go pale and try to go a different way."

"At least you have a good one," Dani said. "At least he cares enough to hate the way he makes the parents feel."

"I know, Dani, but seeing both sides hurt isn't exactly fun times."

"No, it's not. Makes me lucky the family likes my guy. Well, he _was_ my guy. But still." Dani shrugged and reached out to hug her sister. "I don't know if it helps, but I'll keep trying to like Kahlil. I promise."

She hugged Dani back. "Please do. Because if you and Henry don't like him..." She didn't want to tell her sister how much that would kill her.

"At least I don't actively hate him anymore. Points to me for that?" She was trying to get Niki to smile. She didn't like when her sister looked so serious.

"Yes, points to you for that," Niki said, smiling faintly. "I just wish there was a way to show that he's completely different than his uncle and how much he cares about me."

"You'll find something, I'm sure."

"I hope so."

"I know you will," Dani said firmly.

She gave Dani a better smile. "At least one member of my family has faith in me, still."

"Henry does and you know it. He just... doesn't always show it."

"I know, Dani," she said quietly. "It's just hard sometimes."

"That's what you've got me for, though," Dani said, reaching out to take her sister's hand and squeeze it. "We can face anything together."

"Of course we can. We always do."

"You and Kahlil are perfect for each other." She didn't think it was at all weird that she disliked him but thought he was perfect for her sister.

"Then why don't you like him?" Niki called her on that all of the time.

"He's... he scares me," Dani said honestly. And not much scared Dani Temple.

Niki blinked. "He scares you?"

"He's dangerous, Nik. He's hurt people. He's killed people, I'm sure. And yet he's this caring, concerned guy who adores you."

"But he would never hurt anyone we care about, Dani." She ran a hand through her hair. "Hell, people would call us dangerous because of the knowledge we have and the life we plan to lead."

"And I'd hack into the credit bureau and ruin their credit."

She laughed softly.

"I would!"

"I know."

Dani sighed. "It'll work out, Nik. I won't let anybody make you unhappy."

"You can't stop people from making me unhappy, Dans, but thanks for the sentiment."

"I'm a Temple. You'd be surprised what I can do."

She hugged her sister. "Thanks."

"Suppose we should get back in there," Dani said as they stepped back.

"Nah. Let Aunt Jess flail in private about fixing your network."

"You're mean." Dani let out a quiet cackle of laughter. "I love you."

She grinned. "I love you, too. Besides, she's going to be convinced that you're out here watching through the window."

"Should I stand here and watch, or should I wander off and just let her think it?"

"Oh, wander off." Niki grinned again.

"Again, I say you're evil." Dani grinned in return. "So what _should_ I go do, then?" Ordinarily she'd bother Henry, but he was working.

She was about to tell her sister to go bother Henry anyway, when the alarms started going off. "Shit. Got to get to work. See ya later, sis." Niki waved and headed to the armory.

Kahlil met up with her there. He was damn well going to go along on this -- not to keep an eye on her, but because it was his job to observe. He'd stay out of the way, because he wasn't an idiot, but the armory was the easiest way to meet up with everyone.

Niki had time to give him a nod before she was suiting up and grabbing her vest and weapons. She hooked up her earpiece and tapped it to make sure it was working. "Jess? Where are we going?"

"Not far," Jess said, rattling off the relevant information. "Be careful, Niki. Your sister will kill me if you get hurt." Logical? No. But it was how their family worked.

"Aren't I always?" Don't answer that Jess. "I'll take care of my team, you know that."

"Had to say it, though." There was a smile in Jess's voice. "Good luck."

"Thanks, Jess." Niki turned to the rest of the team. "You heard her, let's go."

Kahlil made one last check of his own personal weapon, as well as the gun that he'd snagged from the weapons cache -- because going into the unknown with just a handgun was begging to get killed.

The team moved quickly to the vehicles and Niki jumped into the one she usually rode in. The ride didn't take long and soon the team was gathered in front of the anomaly. She gave Kahlil a small wave before she turned and headed through the anomaly with the team.

This was the part he hated, as was probably evidenced by the way he paced back and forth. All he could do for the moment was pace and wait and pray.

It wasn't too long before the team started making their way back through the anomaly.

Kahlil looked at the team, keeping the worry and anxiety off his face as he looked for Niki.

The last of Niki's team came through right as the anomaly started to flicker. Niki was nowhere in sight.

"Where's Niki?" Kahlil asked, his voice tense.

One of the men stopped, giving Kahlil a confused look. "What do you mean? She hasn't come through yet? She was right with us when the ground starting shaking."

"If she was here, do you think I'd be asking where she is?" he snapped.

"I swear to you, sir, she was with the group when we started to come back through. Maybe she's just in the crowd? There was chaos when the earthquake started."

"I know what she looks like and I _don't_ see her!" Kahlil was already moving towards the anomaly.

One of the soldiers tried to stop Kahlil from getting any closer to the anomaly. "Sir, you can't come any closer. These things aren't safe and this one is about to close down."

"I don't care," Kahlil said. "I'm going after her. I'm not going to abandon her."

"You can't go in there!"

"Watch me," Kahlil said grimly before pushing past the soldier and sprinting for the anomaly. He was barely through the anomaly when it closed down behind him.

He hit the ground and came to his feet quickly. "Niki?" he yelled. "Where are you?"

His voice echoed, but there was no response to his call.


	2. Chapter 2

He took a minute to get his bearings, such as they were, and then yelled again. "Niki! Talk to me, Nik!"

Niki groaned softly as she opened her eyes, not exactly sure what had happened or where she was at first. Her leg hurt and her head did, too. "Hello? Help!"

Kahlil tilted his head, trying to place where the voice was coming from. "Keep talking, Niki, I'm coming!"

Niki was confused. What the hell was Kahlil doing here? Civilians weren't allowed to go through the anomalies. "Kahlil?" She wasn't far from him.

It only took him a minute to find her. "Oh love," he said, dropping to his knees next to her and setting his gun aside. "What happened?"

"Earthquake, I think. The ground started shaking so we started to head back to the anomaly."

"That fits what they said, that you were with them when everything started happening."

"Did the men get through safely?"

"They did," he said with a nod.

She closed her eyes, relief crossing her features for a moment. She sudden opened her eyes, realizing something. "Wait, they let you come out here?"

"Not so much," he said, quirking a smile. "I kind of pushed my way through. I wasn't going to leave you here alone."

"Alone? What happened?"

"The team got through but there wasn't time for them to come back for you. The anomaly was closing."

Niki nodded and then winced. "Ow."

"Don't move," Kahlil said. "What hurts?"

"Leg and head."

"I'm going to check you out, okay? Make sure nothing's broken."

"Ok," she said in a soft voice.

Kahlil did his best to be gentle as he checked her out. "Okay, good news is, nothing in your leg is broken."

"Just sprained?"

"I think so, yes."

"Good," she murmured, closing her eyes.

"Don't know if you have a concussion or not, though," he said, as he took her hand in his.

"Head injuries are the worst," she said in agreement.

"How does your head feel now?"

"It hurts, but it will be all right."

"Good." Because they needed to start assessing the situation and he couldn't do that on his own. She was the tactical one.

"By now, Dani knows I'm missing and is chewing everyone out while Henry is grilling them."

"And Lester will be simultaneously helping Henry and wondering how long they can keep from having to tell my uncle about this." Because while Kahlil was a grown man who answered to himself, there were just some things you didn't keep from Phillip Burton. Especially since God only knew what his reaction would be anyway; his reaction if the news were kept from him would likely be even worse.

"Mom and Dads will be outside the original opening right about now."

"I hope they come up with something soon." Otherwise their outlook was pretty grim.

"They will," she murmured, closing her eyes. "My family won't just let us stay trapped out here. Not after what they've been through."

"They'll worry about you," he agreed. Not that he thought they'd leave him out there, but he knew that Niki's safety would be first and foremost to them.

"They'll worry about you, too."

"Because I'm with you, love," he said gently. "They'll want to get me back, yes, but _you're_ the one they'll worry about. I have no delusions that your family likes me."

"Dani likes you," she murmured groggily. "She just thinks you're dangerous."

"Your sister's very perceptive."

"You're not dangerous to us."

"No, I'm not."

"I told her that."

"And she didn't believe you, did she?"

"She knows you're not a danger to me or the people I love," she refuted.

"Knowing something and believing it are often two different things entirely, love." Arguing with Niki kept her thinking, kept her mind working. If she did have a head injury, he wanted her as with it as possible.

"She believes you would never hurt me."

"I would rather die than hurt you, love." He reached out to touch her face gently.

"I know that," she assured him, turning her face towards his hand. "I have no doubt of that."

"I'm going to keep you safe," he promised. "Whatever I have to do here, I'll do."

She nodded, trying to fight the wince of pain. "I know you will, Kahlil. I love you."

"I hate seeing you in pain," he whispered, his fingers stroking her cheek tenderly. "Even moreso when there's precious little I can do for you."

"You're here. That's plenty."

"Because now you don't have to face the dangers alone." Kahlil was looking around as he spoke.

She nodded slightly, closing her eyes.

"No, love. Don't go to sleep. Not yet."

"I'm so sleepy, love."

"But we have to find a decent shelter," he reasoned. "You can't go to sleep out here."

"Shelter," she repeated. "Yeah. I should know that."

"Come on, love. Let's get up and get moving. Find shelter. Then you can rest while I scout."

"Need a cave or something."

"Do you remember seeing one?" he asked as he slowly helped her to her feet. Asking her to think was asking a lot at the moment, he knew, but he was trying to keep her mind working.

"Possibly. It may have been nothing, but about two miles south of here there were mountains and cliffs. Some of the shadows were strange so they could have been caves."

"We'll have to take a chance," he said, wrapping an arm around her to help her walk. "I know it's not going to be comfortable, love, and I'm sorry."

"You didn't cause the earthquake, love," Niki murmured as she leaned on him. "And you came for me."

"They tried stopping me," he said softly as they walked. "I wasn't about to let them do that."

"That was foolish of them."

"I wasn't going to let them stop me," he said. "Not when you would be here alone." Of course, now they were both trapped, but at least she wasn't alone.

"We'll get back home," she said with a soft confidence. "They'll find us."

"And if they don't, at least we're together."

"Together is very good."

"This is not how I envisioned getting time alone with you tonight, though, I have to admit," he joked, trying to keep the mood up a little.

Niki laughed softly. "Yeah, this wasn't my idea of a good date, either."

"Your idea of a good date is the shooting range," he teased. "Or shagging at my flat. We really don't have a lot of variety, do we?"

Niki managed to laugh, though it hurt like hell to do so. "We know what we like."

"I manage to keep up with you pretty well for an old man." The age difference was a joke between them because really, they didn't care about it.

Niki smiled at him. "You're my old man."

"Damn right I am."

"Caves," Niki gestured, sagging against his side.

Kahlil scooped Niki up in his arms at that, carrying her towards the caves. Thankfully one of them was easy enough to get to even with her in his arms.

"Tired, so tired, Kahlil."

"You'll be able to rest in a few minutes, love," he promised as he made his way towards the back of the cave.

"Dani. Dani will find us."

"Of course she will," Kahlil said, setting Niki down gently on the floor of the cave. "She won't let anything happen to you."

Niki didn't respond, closing her eyes.

"You just rest," Kahlil said, taking a seat next to her. He'd been planning to scout around, but if she was going to possibly sleep, then he wasn't leaving her alone.

"Trying not to be a hindrance to you."

"You need to rest," he said, pulling her close so she could rest her head in his lap. "I'll scout in a little bit, once you've had a chance to rest a little."

"You can scout while I'm sleeping," she murmured. "I should still have my guns."

"If you have head trauma, I don't want you sleeping by yourself."

"If I have head trauma, I'm not going to be in any condition to scout."

Kahlil was torn. He needed to scout, he knew that, but... at the same time, he didn't want to leave her alone in her condition.

"I'll be all right, love."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. You've put me far enough away from the opening that I can shoot anything before it gets the drop on me."

He leaned in to kiss her. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Love you."

"Love you, too." He looked at her grimly. "Anything comes into this cave, shoot it."

She smiled and brought one of the guns to lay across her chest.

"That's my girl." His expression softened slightly; he looked at her for another moment before standing and heading for the mouth of the cave.

Niki watched him leave, fighting to keep her eyes open.

 

Kahlil was back roughly an hour later; he hadn't wanted to be gone too long for fear of something happening to Niki. Once they knew her condition a little better, he'd make a more exhaustive exploration of the area. This little sojourn had been enough to tell him the answers to the basic questions.

"Niki!" he called as he approached the cave, remembering telling her to shoot anything that came in. "I'm back!" Startling her and getting shot would be rather unpleasant.

"I'm here," she murmured, relaxing her hand on the gun.

He moved to her side quickly. "How're you feeling?"

"Tired. Cold." She looked up at him. "What did you find out?"

"We've found about the best spot we could to hide out in," Kahlil replied as he sat. "We're well and truly stuck here, but we should be able to forage well enough to get by."

"That's good to know."

"I'll make another sweep later," he said, setting his weapons aside. "I didn't want to leave you alone for too long right now, just in case."

"I'm so tired, Kahlil."

"I know, love. I know." Kahlil smiled encouragingly. "Do you feel any of the signs of a concussion? Because if you don't, I think then we can let you sleep."

"Hurts, but that's it." She was pretty sure that she didn't have a concussion.

"Then I think you can sleep for a little while," he said. "I'm still going to keep an eye on you, though. Just to make me feel better."

"Don't stress yourself out over me, love."

"If I don't worry about you a little now, I'll be too stressed to properly help keep us safe."

She frowned, but then nodded slightly. "Like I would if it was reversed."

"Exactly," he said with a nod.

"You'll wake me up if anything happens?"

"Of course I will," he promised.

"They'll find us," she murmured, finally giving in to sleep.

Kahlil could only hope that she was right. He sat there with her for a while, watching her sleep, until finally he had to get up and move; he started pacing, every so often looking back to his sleeping girlfriend.

 

"What do you mean, the anomaly closed!" Abby shouted at the men who had come to report to Becker about the latest anomaly. "Where is my daughter?!"

"On the other side," said a particularly brave -- or stupid -- soldier. "With Mr. Pierce."

"You left them on the other side of an anomaly?" Abby's blue eyes had turned almost black with fury.

"We didn't realize she wasn't with us until it was nearly too late," another soldier said. "Before we could do anything, Mr. Pierce took off through the anomaly -- and then it closed."

"Open the damn thing back up, then!"

"We tried, ma'am. It... failed."

Abby's voice turned cold and quiet. "What do you mean it failed?"

"It wouldn't open," the soldier replied. "We tried several times and each time, it didn't open."

Becker was just as upset as Abby, but he was forcing himself to stay calm. They couldn't get Niki -- and Kahlil -- back if he let himself fall apart.

"Well, we'll just have to figure out why it failed, then, won't we?"

Abby was trying not to show her panic at the idea of her daughter and Kahlil going through the same thing that she and Connor had gone through.

"Connor and Jess," she said, forcing herself to speak. "Where are Connor and Jess?"

"Last I heard, Connor was helping Jess repair what she did to the systems," Becker said. "We... we should tell him about this ourselves, Abby."

Abby nodded, but she felt like she was watching everything from far away. "Yes. I don't want him to find out from someone else."

"Let's go find him, then," Becker said, standing. It was a clear dismissal of his men.

Abby clutched at his arm after the men were gone. "Hilary!" Her whispered voice was full of shock and fear.

"It's going to be all right," he soothed. "We'll get her back, I promise."

"The last time," her voice broke. "The last time someone was trapped... we were gone a year."

"That's not going to happen this time," Becker said, pulling her into his arms and hugging her tightly. "We've made advances in understanding the anomalies. I'm sure they'll be able to get her back."

Abby hugged him back, fear evident in every move she made. "Niki and Kahlil are out there..."

"We'll get them back," he promised before pulling away. "Let's go talk to Conn."

"T-trapped." Abby wasn't aware of how cold she had suddenly gotten. "Hil..."

Becker wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side.

"We have to help them." Abby was clutching at him.

"We will," he said softly. "But first we need to tell Connor what happened."

She nodded, fighting back tears as they went looking for Connor.

They found him in a side room, working with Jess on one of the computers. He looked up when they came in and immediately knew something was wrong. "What happened?" he asked, knowing it couldn't possibly be anything good.

"Connor... Niki..." Abby swallowed, trying to get the words past her throat.

Jess knew this was a family matter; she was family of a sort, yes, but this wasn't for her to hear. "I'm going to take a break for a couple minutes," she said before standing and slipping out of the room.

Abby tried to tell Connor what happened, but she couldn't seem to say it. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at him helplessly.

"There's a problem, Conn." Becker took a deep breath. "Niki didn't make it back through the anomaly. And they couldn't get it open again."

Connor went pale. "No, that... that can't be right."

"She's trapped," Abby whispered, her eyes haunted.

"She's _alone_!"

"No," Becker said with a quick shake of his head. "Kahlil's with her. Apparently he went through just before the anomaly closed."

Abby nodded. "He ran through the anomaly before it closed."

Connor was still pale. "We have to get her back," he said numbly. "We have to. I can't apologize to her if we don't."

"Apologize for what?"

"Kahlil made a joke about something, I told him I know how to handle my family, Niki tried to calm me down, and I just... walked away from her."

"Kahlil... they said that when he realized Niki hadn't come back, he shoved through the security team to go look for her," Abby whispered. She reached out to pull Connor to her and Becker and clung to him a little.

Connor buried his face against Abby's hair. "He... oh God, he really loves her, doesn't he?" He'd long suspected Kahlil of just using Niki. Now he was confronted with evidence that it wasn't the case.

"I think... I think maybe he does," Abby said slowly. "Why else would he have run into a situation like that?" She swallowed hard. "His... his uncle never would have endangered himself for anyone -- much less one of us."

"He'll keep her safe," Becker soothed the two of them. "He's got the training for it."

"How could this have happened?" Abby whispered. "How could she have been left behind?!"

"I don't know, love," Becker said. "But I'll find out. I promise I'll find out."

Abby nodded, trying to get her emotions under control. It wasn't working so well.

Connor was busy trying not to fall apart. "What if the last conversation I ever had with my daughter is one where I walked away from her?"

That made Abby's tears start. "It won't be. It can't be."

Becker hugged them both close. "We're going to get them back. I won't let it be any other way."

"Dani," Abby whispered against his chest. "Dani. We have to tell her and Henry what happened."

"We do," Connor said. "I... God, I'm too scared to tell them."

"We have to. They need to hear it form us." Abby was already dreading the temper tantrum that her daughter was going to throw all over the ARC about this.

He sighed heavily. "I know," he said, pulling back to rake his fingers through his hair. "I know."

"Henry... maybe Henry can help keep her from killing someone." Because if there was one thing Abby had learned a long time ago, her daughters were violently protective of each other.

"I hope so."

Abby sniffled, trying to pull herself together. Then something occurred to her and her face paled. "Oh God."

"What? Abby, what is it?" Connor looked at her worriedly.

"If Burton finds out that Kahlil is out there, he may show up here."

Becker swore. "That's the last damn thing we need."

"I can't," she whimpered. "I can't deal with him. I can't handle seeing that... him." The idea of having to see Burton again brought up all of the painful memories of how she had been hurt by him and how she had almost lost the two men that meant more than her own life.

"If he shows up, I'll deal with him," Connor promised. "I didn't take care of you the first time; I'm going to take care of you now."

Abby nodded, but her hands were shaking as she reached out to Connor. "Be careful around him, please."

"I will," he said, taking her hands in his. "I promise, love. I will."

She nodded, believing him. However the fear for her daughter and now the panic of Burton probably showing up was almost more than even someone as tough as Abby could take.

"Okay, first we're going to go talk to Dani and Henry," Becker said, cutting in gently. "Which means that first, we need to _find_ them."

She nodded. "Probably in the main room with all of the monitors or in Lester's office."

"Let's try the main room," Connor said. "Dani's probably trying to make sure we really have fixed everything."

Abby nodded. She'd follow Connor and Becker's lead on this.

They found their daughter in the main room, sitting at one of the consoles. Henry stood behind her, resting his hands lightly on her shoulders as he watched her work.

Dani heard footsteps and turned slightly. "What's wrong?" she asked instantly, because her parents wouldn't look like that if everything was okay.

Abby swallowed and then swallowed again. She couldn't seem to get the words out and she looked at Connor and Becker helplessly.

"There was an... incident," Becker said. "Your sister's team didn't realize that she wasn't with them until it was too late."

"Too late?" Dani repeated. "What do you mean by too late?"

"The anomaly closed," Abby whispered. "Niki... Niki didn't come back before that happened."

"No!" Dani protested, panic in her voice. "Why didn't they open it and go after her? They just _left_ her there?"

"They wouldn't have left her without a reason," Henry soothed, squeezing her shoulders gently as he looked to the adults. "There _was_ a reason, right?"

Abby chewed on her lip. "They couldn't get it open again."

"What?" Dani looked stunned. "That's... what happened to the device?"

"I don't know," Connor said. "I'm going to take a look at it, see if I can figure out the problem."

"I'm going to help," Dani said instantly.

"Kahlil is with her," Abby said, looking at Dani and Henry. "He fought past the security team and went through the anomaly before it closed."

"Then she'll be fine," Dani said, looking a little calmer -- but not much. "He'll keep her safe." She might not have liked Kahlil, but she believed that he loved her sister.

"She's not alone," Abby said with a small nod. "But we have to get that damn thing open and bring them home."

"Preferably _before_ Burton and his family descend upon us," Henry said, wrinkling his nose.

Abby tried not to react to that, but she could feel her shoulders tense even more.

"Mom, it's gonna be okay," Dani said. "The dads will deal with Burton, Henry and I will worry about Miranda and Elena." Burton's daughter and wife, respectively. "We won't let him get to you again."

Abby nodded. "I'm the mom. I'm supposed to be protecting you guys."

"We protect who needs to be protected, Aunt Abby," Henry said. "And right now, that's you."

He sounded so much like Danny that she gave him a faint smile.

"So you don't worry about a thing," he said to Abby. "And you," he said, pressing a kiss to the top of Dani's head. "You just worry about the anomaly locking device and what might be wrong with it. You know Niki's with someone who can protect her."

Abby was quiet, listening to everything that was going on around her and trying to make sure she stayed on her feet.

"We should get you out of here," Connor said softly to her, reaching out to take her hand in his.

Abby reached her hand so he could take it and she was pretty sure he could feel how badly she was shaking.

He didn't say anything, though, just squeezed her hand in silent reassurance.

"D-Dani? Be careful with those things. I don't want to lose any of you."

"I'll be careful, Mom. I promise."

Abby nodded and then let herself be led away.

Dani watched her mother and father go. "I don't want him to help," she said, looking up at Becker. "If he can't get the device working properly again, he'll blame himself and fall apart. Let me do it. Please?"

"He needs to help, for his own peace of mind," Becker said gently. "He feels guilty. Helping will make him feel better."

"So will worrying about taking care of Mom," Dani pointed out.

"You're not doing it by yourself, Dani," Becker said firmly.

"Then let Aunt Jess help me," Dani bargained.

That would be when Jess poked her head into the room. "Did I hear my name?"

"You did," Dani said, managing a smile she didn't entirely feel. "He won't let me work on the anomaly locking device by myself."

Jess came fully into the room, followed by Matt. "She won't be working on it alone," Jess said. "Let Matt and I work with Henry and you go look after Abby and Connor."

Becker hesitated. "Call me the minute you know anything."

Jess just gave him a look that spoke volumes.

Becker just gave her a look back before giving Dani a slight smile and heading out of the room.

Jess let out a sigh and then looked back at the other three. "We have got to make this work."

"We will," Henry said, his hands resting on Dani's shoulders again protectively, almost possessively.

She nodded, looking at Matt. "I haven't seen Abby look like that in a long time."

"Me, either," Matt said with a shake of his head. "It's... not a good look on her."

"The last time we saw that look was when Burton told her that Connor wanted nothing more to do with her because he had bigger and better things to get him access to at Prospero," Jess muttered. "Not to mention see her start to break when she found out that he was slowly killing her."

Dani bit the inside of her cheek hard. "We can't let my mom break again, Aunt Jess. we just can't."

"We won't Dani," Matt promised. "I made a promise when Abby pulled through the poisoning that I would never let anything happen to her or her family ever again. I mean to keep that promise. We _will_ get your sister back safely."

Dani just nodded, fighting back tears. She couldn't fall apart now. Not when Niki needed her.

Jess looked at Dani. "Where do you want to start?"

"I don't know where _to_ start," Dani admitted, fighting to keep her voice from cracking.

Jess reached over and hugged her. "All right, let's check the data feeds first and see if we can find where the device failed."

Dani simply nodded, more than happy to let Jess take charge.

She gripped Dani's arms gently. "We will get your sister back, all right. I promise you, Danielle. We will get her back."

"Of course we are," Dani said, a bit of her usual subtle fire returning.

"Then keep a hold of that temper of yours and focus it into these damn machines."

"Take a deep breath, Dani girl," Henry murmured. "Take a breath, let it go, and dive right in."

Dani nodded and did as he said. "Okay... let's get to it, then. Let's figure this out and bring my sister home."

Jess looked at Matt, who nodded. "We can do this."

"We're _going_ to do this," Henry said firmly. "Rather, you three are and I'm going to stay out of the way."

"Don't leave," Dani said quietly.

"I won't, love. I'm just going to go do a coffee or tea run for everybody and then sit in the corner with some paperwork." He knew better than to be in the thick of things while the others were working.

Jess gave him a small smile. "Coffee will probably be needed."

"Just let me know what everybody wants and then I'll be off." Henry was very, very good at taking care of people when he needed to be.

Jess and Matt placed their orders and then started loading data feeds.

"Your usual?" Henry looked at Dani.

She nodded. "And Henry? Thanks. For..."

"It's all right." He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "I know what you mean." He straightened, smiled, and headed out of the room.

"Here's the first feed," Jess said, her fingers running over the keyboard.

Dani leaned forward. "Okay, nothing _looks_ out of the ordinary here yet..."

Matt frowned. "Does that thing look a little less bright than others usually do to you?"

Dani's eyes widened. "You're right, it does!"

Jess frowned. "It looks like it was trying to close even before it was fully open. But Niki's team didn't go through it until someone said it was stable." She looked at Matt. "Who would have given the okay to go through that?"

Matt had to think about it for a second before he came up with an answer and told Jess.

Dani, meanwhile, was trying to figure out why someone _would_ give the okay to go through a not entirely stable anomaly.

Jess was listening to a second data feed. "So they went through a non-stable anomaly and then an earthquake happened."

"Sounds like prime conditions for someone trying to intentionally trap them on the other side, if you ask me," Dani said, a faint growl in her voice.

Matt frowned at the feed, thinking and hating what he was thinking. "Not them, Niki. No one could have expected that Kahlil would go in after her. If Kahlil hadn't been there, no one would have realized she was left behind until it was too late."

"Then who would've been bone-headed enough to try and trap her?" More like Dani wanted to know who she had to rip limb from limb.

"Someone who obviously has no idea who they're messing with when they mess with someone in this family," Jess said, shaking her head.

Dani was too busy seething internally to say anything at the moment, which was probably for the best. Anything she said would've been scary.

"Right then," Matt said way too calmly. "You and Dani will figure out how to get them back, and then Henry and I will deal with the one or ones that caused this."

Dani took a deep breath at Matt's words. She could do that, couldn't she? Of course she could.

"Okay, so..." she said musingly. "Operating on the assumption that the anomaly wasn't stable before they went through to begin with, what does that mean? It means we have to make doubly sure it's stable, for one thing."

Jess nodded. "At least long enough to get in there and find Niki and Kahlil. She couldn't have gotten very far before everyone turned around and came back through."

"The men were talking about an earthquake," Matt reminded them. "If she got caught in an earthquake, she could be further away from the opening than we think."

"Which means she could be hurt." It was a leap, yes, but it was a leap Dani made with good reason. She knew what things could be like on the other side of an anomaly, even if she hadn't been through many of them.

"Because if she wasn't, then she would have come back and Kahlil wouldn't have needed to go looking for her."

"So we can reasonably assume that she's hurt," Dani said, shifting from sister mode to worker mode. "Which means we can equally reasonably assume that Kahlil's going to be the one doing most of the keeping them safe."

Matt let out a breath. "Because he won't let anything more happen to Niki. Even I have to admit that. He'll keep her safe."

"Which means we don't have to focus on that and can move on to the next thing we need to worry about," Dani said, looking to Jess for confirmation.

Jess nodded in agreement. "Getting that damn thing open."

Which was easier said than done, but Dani was clinging to it with her customary tenacity. She didn't have much of a choice.

"We can do this," Jess said calmly. "We'll get her back safely, Dani. I swear to you."

Dani just nodded before turning her attention back to the task at hand.

Jess looked at Matt with worry in her eyes.

Matt sighed heavily. He and Henry were going to be putting someone in a world of hurt. For hurting his family, he would do it. They were the only family he had, after all.

Jess bit her lip as she turned to the computer terminal.

Dani noticed. "It's going to be okay, Aunt Jess," she promised. "I can do this. I can get them back."

"Shouldn't I be telling you that?"

"When have I ever done things the usual way?" Dani pointed out. It was all bravado, all an attempt at playing normal.

"Do you think the guys will let us have those responsible to use as target practice before they take permanent care of them for this?" Jess asked in a teasing voice, trying to lighten Dani's mood. "You know, with the EMDs and not real bullets so we can prolong the pain."

"If they're smart, they will," Dani said, her voice worryingly even despite the faint smile curving her lips. "And if nothing else, the guys are smart."

"They know better than to get in the way of us girls when we're decided on something."

Dani laughed softly, nodding in agreement. "Okay, then. Let's do this."


	3. Chapter 3

Niki moaned softly when she opened her eyes. Her head hurt more than it had before, but so did her knee. She was trying to piece together everything that had happened and then frowned when some things got hazy. However, there was one thing that she remembered perfectly clearly.

"Kahlil?" She called softly. "Kahlil?"

At least, she thought she did.

Kahlil had been sitting at the mouth of the cave, keeping watch. When he heard Niki's soft voice calling for him, he hurried back to her quickly. "Ssh, love," he murmured. "Don't move too much."

"I didn't dream that you were here," she said with relief in her voice.

"No, you didn't," he said with a gentle smile. "I'm right here."

"Thank God."

"I wasn't going to let you face any of this alone. Love you too much for that." He grinned at her before sobering. "How're you feeling? What still hurts? Anything new hurting?"

"My head is killing me and my knee. I think everything else is just bruised."

"Bruised is good. Better than alternatives, at least." And right now, they would take what small bits of good news they could get.

"Much better." She swallowed. "I feel so thirsty Kahlil. Is there water left in the bag?"

He made a quick check. "A little, yes."

"We should find a water source."

"You finish waking up a little more and then I'll go looking." If he was going to be leaving her behind, he wanted her as awake as possible, just in case.

Niki would have nodded, but she was of the mind that the less she moved her head, the less she would want to bitch about it. "How did you rest?"

"Got about... two hours of sleep? A little more, maybe?" Kahlil shrugged. "The rest of the time, I was sitting guard up by the mouth of the cave." He hadn't wanted to sleep too much, hadn't wanted to be asleep while she was also sleeping. Someone needed to be awake.

"I can take watch tonight so you can sleep." She should know better.

"You're still too injured," he said. "After I find a water source, I'll come back and crash for a little bit and you can watch out then, all right?" It was his version of a compromise, which wasn't really much of one. But he'd tried.

She gave him a faint smile, well aware of what he was doing. "Promise?"

"Promise," he said with a solemn nod.

Niki tried to stretch so that she could stand, but her body didn't seem to want to cooperate. "Damn it, body, I am not that injured."

"Your body would beg to differ," he said wryly. "Think you could manage standing if I help you?"

"My body apparently did not get the memo that I am not allowed to be injured," she said calmly. "I think so."

Kahlil crouched, slipping an arm around Niki and slowly helping her move. It took them several minutes of slow, agonizing movement, but they finally got Niki on her feet and looking a little more stable.

"I don't like this being injured thing."

"I know you don't, love. I don't like you being injured, either." He especially didn't like not knowing how to help her.

"You're worried."

"Of course I am."

"I'll be all right, love."

"I'm still allowed to worry. It's in the job description." He stepped back. "You going to be okay by yourself now?"

Niki nodded. "I have the gun and if I need to, I'll sit down."

"You better." He smiled faintly. "I'll try not to be gone long."

She nodded, then gave him a faint smile. "You be careful, too, Kahlil. I can't..." She swallowed. "Just be careful."

"I will be." He ducked his head and kissed her gently. "I promise."

She didn't nod, because her head hurt, but she did reach out and squeeze his hand.

He returned the squeeze, reluctant to leave her even though he knew that finding a water source was pretty high on the list of things that absolutely needed to be done. "Love you," he whispered before stepping back and heading for the mouth of the cave.

Niki watched him go, leaning against the cave wall when he was out of sight. It would do no good for him to realize just how much pain she was in. When she heard him come back, she'd stand up on her own again.

 

Kahlil was gone for over an hour, which was actually less time than he'd expected to be gone on the hunt for water. Even better, in his opinion, was that the water source he'd found was only about twenty minutes from their cave. Not ideal, but much better than it could've been.

He'd taken her water canteen with him, which meant that he'd been able to fill it up to the top. She'd probably need most of it when he got back. He took a swig, topped it off, and capped it before heading back to the cave.

"Niki?" he called out. "Niki, I'm back!" Obvious, but she was likely exhausted and jumpy; better safe than sorry.

"I'm here," she called from where she had slid to sit down with her back against the cave wall. Her finger relaxed on the trigger when she heard his familiar voice. "Are you all right?" She couldn't help the tremor in her voice.

"I'm fine, love," he assured her as he came into her view. "And I have water, too." He held up the canteen. "Here, have a drink." He held it out to her as he approached. "Drink what you need; the water source I found isn't too far away, only about twenty minutes. I'll make another run out later."

And they'd need to find a way to store more water than just what the canteen could hold.

"Are you sure it's not that far?" Because she wouldn't drink what she needed if she thought otherwise.

"It's only about twenty minutes, love," he assured her as he sat down next to her. "Bit of a hike, but not too bad."

"I can go the next time." Oh, but no.

"Nice try." He smiled faintly. "I'll make another run or two tonight, make sure we've got enough to get us through the evening and most of tomorrow morning -- if we can come up with some idea about something to hold water besides the canteen." He'd been trying to figure it out for a while.

"There might be something in my pack that we can use," she suggested.

"You drink, I'll check the pack." He gave her a look that said she should probably start taking sips of the water.

She knew that look and she slowly took a sip from the canteen and then another. "You think Dani is losing her mind, yet?"

"Dani was losing her mind as soon as she found out, I have a feeling."

"You're probably right. She's going to tear apart the men for leaving me behind. I'm sure they thought I was with them, but when the quake hit it was pretty chaotic."

"If she doesn't tear them apart, Henry will on her behalf."

"I know," Niki's voice was soft. "Mom and the Dads have got to be freaking out. I bet this is bringing back too many memories."

"I'm sure it is." Kahlil went quiet, rummaging through Niki's pack.

"Did I ever tell you what they told me happened?" She didn't think she had.

Kahlil just looked at her and shook his head slightly.

"Mom and Dad -- Connor -- got stuck in the past for over a year when they went chasing after Helen Cutter," she said softly. "Uncle Danny was missing for two years."

"I figured as much," he said softly. "Just from bits and pieces I've heard over the years."

"Mom... Mom hasn't gone through an anomaly since and the Dads haven't gone through them, either. They're afraid of what Mom might do if they got trapped." She sighed quietly. "She had a hard time readjusting to the world when they got back."

"I'll get you back to them, Nik. Somehow, I will." It was a crazy promise, but one he'd do his damnedest to keep.

"I know you will," she said softly, leaning back against the cave wall. "I have no doubts about that."

He came up with a second, empty canteen out of the pack. "If you didn't pack this, remind me to thank whoever did."

"Probably Dad... Becker Dad. He always double checks my pack, just to make sure."

"In that case, I think I'll resist the urge to hug him."

"Yeah, it's possible that he might slug you first." Niki's voice went sad and she closed her eyes, looking away from him.

"Hey..." He turned towards her, holding the canteen. "I know it's not easy for you to be with me, love. I love you."

"Oh Kahlil, it's not that. I love you so much and I can't imagine you not being in my life." She looked at him. "It's just that I don't want the last memory Daddy Connor has of me to be of us fighting."

"It won't be," Kahlil said fiercely. "We're going to get you home, Nik."

She looked up at him and her eyes were filled with tears. "I'm worried, Kahlil." Notice she didn't say she was scared. She wasn't ready to admit that yet.

"Then it's a good thing I'm here to be confident for you, isn't it?" he asked, moving to where she sat and sitting down next to her. He wrapped an arm around her and carefully pulled her into his arms.

She leaned into his embrace, trying to keep the tears from falling. "I hate that you got trapped, but I'm glad that you came for me."

"When I found out you were here... that you'd been left behind... there was no way I wasn't going to come for you."

"How much damage did you do to my team when they tried to stop you?"

"Very little, actually," he said. "I just sort of shoved my way through them and made a run for it."

She laughed softly. "Kept them from bleeding that way."

"If they'd tried to restrain me much harder, they'd have bled."

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. "Your uncle is going to throw a fit when he finds out that you got trapped here with me." Not as big of a fit as Dani would throw on Burton for daring to come to the ARC or say anything, but close.

"I'm hoping your family will decide to just not tell him until after they get us back."

"If he shows up in Dani's space..."

"If he shows up in her space, then we'll be planning a funeral -- and it won't be hers." Kahlil sighed. "I'd hope he doesn't show up, but we all know he probably will."

"And he'll upset Mom," she said quietly.

"I don't want that."

"It's not something you can stop him from doing, love. I wish it was."

"I know." He sighed. "I just hate how my family can't do anything but upset her. It's why I try avoiding her as much as I can, when I'm around."

"It's... it's not your family, love," Niki said quietly. "It's your uncle. He ..." She looked down, warring with herself over telling him what her family didn't realize she and her sister knew.

"He did something bad to her, didn't he?" Kahlil asked gently.

Niki nodded slowly, wincing from the pain. "Mom and the Dads don't think that Dani and I know about what happened, but we do."

"What... what did he do?" Kahlil asked, hugging Niki a little closer as though he could protect her from the horribleness of whatever had happened to Abby.

"It wasn't enough that he was taking Connor away from mom and dad," she whispered, leaning into his chest. "He tried to kill mom. There was a poisonous gas that was fed into the vents of her lab every few days. It couldn't be sensed at all and it was only affecting Mom. It didn't seem to have any affect on the plants she was working on in her lab -- and it didn't affect Rex, either. But Mom, she kept getting more and more sick. She collapsed in her lab and it was a few hours before Aunt Jess came in and saw Mom's body on the floor through her security feeds."

"Shit." Kahlil didn't know what else to say; really, did anything else need to be said? "No wonder she flipped out the first time she saw us together."

"Uncle Matt was the one who found what Burton was releasing into Mom's air vents. He almost killed your uncle. She was sick for quite awhile before she collapsed so it must have been happening for awhile. Later Uncle Matt and Aunt Jess told the Dads that if Mom was dead and out of the equation, then there was no chance of anyone being able to change Connor's mind about working for him on his questionable projects."

"I..." Kahlil hadn't expected it to be that bad, but he shouldn't have been surprised. "God, Nik. No wonder she was so jumpy for so many years after." He'd known about that much but had never known why.

"That's the reason he's only the figurehead for Prospero and not allowed to make any real decisions without the backing of the board. They couldn't legally prove that it was him because legally parts of the ARC don't exist." Niki said quietly. "We kids aren't supposed to know, but Dani and I overheard the Dads talking about it one night. They thought they were going to lose her and yeah, she was really jumpy for many years. She slowly got better, but sometimes she is reminded about that and one of the Dads is there to talk her down from the panic."

Kahlil could only shake his head. "That makes a lot of things make so much more sense, now that I think about it." He sighed. "Guess there aren't a whole lot of family dinners for us to look forward to in the future, hm?" He tried for a smile and didn't quite make it.

"They'll accept you because I love you -- and especially after this."

"Do you really think your mother will be able to accept me?" There was an undercurrent of something in his voice that might've been fear.

"You ran into a dangerous situation to go after her daughter, love. She'll accept you."

"That'll definitely win me points with her, but it's a big step from being grateful to actual acceptance."

"You endangered yourself to protect her baby."

"Who happens to be the woman I love more than anything."

"And I love you just as much," she said with a soft smile.

"Means the world to me, love," he said, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. "The absolute world."

She smiled again, leaning into him.

"And whether we get home or not -- though obviously I'd much prefer to get home -- I'm right where I want to be," he said. "Because I'm with you."

"I love you."

"I love you, too," he murmured, kissing the side of her head again. "I always will."

She smiled slightly, closing her eyes as she relaxed against him. "I know you will."

Kahlil let his head rest against the wall of the cave, his eyes closing as well. God, he was tired.

"Sleep, sweetheart. I'll keep a watch out."

"I'm supposed to be protecting you." Might've sounded more convincing if he weren't already drowsy and half asleep.

"You can protect me better when you get some rest."

"Hate when you're right," he mumbled.

"You love it when I'm right," she said softly.

"Brat." He laughed tiredly. "Wake me up soon, 'kay?"

"I will, love. Just rest now."

"Okay." And with that, he was out like a light; he'd been more tired than he'd let on.

Niki sighed softly, leaning her head against him as he slept and keeping her eyes on the mouth of the cave. She might have been injured, but there was no way she would let anything happen to Kahlil on her watch.


	4. Chapter 4

Becker had gotten Connor to calm down and at least attempt resting, but no such luck with Abby. Not that he was surprised by it -- and truth be told, he was expecting Connor's attempt to be more full of tossing and turning than actual rest. He was pretty sure the other man had agreed only to placate him.

He found Abby pacing the halls -- because of course they hadn't left the ARC, probably wouldn't until they knew something more.

"Abby my girl," he said softly. He hated seeing the pain on her face and in her movements, hated knowing that there was nothing he could do to help.

Abby lifted her head and it took her a second to register that it was Becker speaking to her. She stopped walking, waiting for him to reach her. She hadn't been able to rest since Niki had failed to come home. She knew that neither of her husbands had rested, either, and she wondered if they were having as many problems with their minds racing as she had.

"Conn's crashed... I'm not sure where he went and tucked himself away at, actually, I just made him promise to go take a nap. Probably on a bench in the locker room or something." Becker reached Abby and pulled her into his arms.

Abby nodded slowly, letting him pull her against him. She leaned into his body, trying to feel the comfort that she usually felt when he or Connor held her. "It's like a nightmare I can't wake up from."

He resisted the urge to cling to her simply because he knew she needed him to be the strong one. "We'll get her back, Abby. I _promise_ you, we'll get her back."

"It's like when Connor and I were gone, only worse."

"They won't be gone as long as you were, Abby," Becker said softly. "I won't let it happen. You're not going to suffer like that. I won't let you and Connor end up suffering like that. I couldn't help you then, but by God I can now."

Someone still had issues even after a little over two decades.

She tightened her arms around him. "I'm scared, Hilary. I don't let Connor see it because I don't want him to tear himself apart worrying. I try to keep you from seeing it, too, but I don't know if I can do it any longer."

"Don't hide it from me," he whispered, not quite begging. "Don't shut me out like that, love. I can't help you if you don't let me in."

"I'm not trying to shut you out," she assured him. "I just know that you are every bit as worried as I am."

"Worrying about you is easier than worrying about myself, though," he told her. "I don't know how to fix my own pain, but I can damn well try to fix yours."

"We can't fix it until we get her back," Abby said softly. "You won't feel better until we do."

"I'm not worried about my pain," Becker said. "I'm worried about yours and Connor's. We have to get her back for him. He'll spend the rest of his life hating himself otherwise."

"But he didn't do anything wrong."

"They fought before she left," Becker said. "They fought and he walked away from her. To him, that's enough."

Abby shook her head and then sighed softly. "This is all so messed up, love."

"Yeah," Becker agreed. "It is."

"I just want her home," she whispered. "I'd trade places with her if I could."

"No!" There was no mistaking the stark panic in his voice or the wild look in his eyes. "I couldn't lose you like that again. I _couldn't_."

She reached up to cradle his face between her hands. "Breathe, love. Breathe. I'm not going anywhere. You've got me and that's forever."

"Don't scare me like that." His voice was quiet. "I need you too much."

"Mothers say things like that all of the time," she said softly.

"Doesn't mean it scares me any less."

"The idea of losing you scares me, too. You and Connor... I couldn't handle being here without you."

"Thankfully, you'll never have to." He pulled back, just enough to tip her head up and kiss her lightly. "And we'll get our daughter back, love. I promise."

She kissed him back and then lay her head back against his chest. "She has to be all right. She just has to be."

"Of course she's all right. She's with a man who'd lay down his life for her." He still didn't entirely _like_ Kahlil, but he could separate that from everything else. The fact that Kahlil had taken off after Niki without a thought had done a good bit to raise him in Becker's estimation.

"I don't want him to have to. It would destroy something within her, I think."

"It would," Becker agreed. "But right now, the knowledge that he _would_ if he had to is the only thing keeping me from breaking down."

Abby nodded. "I know. The fact that he went after her means that she has a better chance of coming home alive."

"We just have to believe in that."

Abby wanted to believe, but it was just so hard when one of her girls was trapped a long way away from home.

 

Niki had managed to stay awake and let Kahlil sleep for quite a long time. When the sky turned dark, she moved only slightly to make sure he was warm enough. When the sky started turning light again, she started keeping a close eye on him because she knew he would start waking up soon.

Usually.

And this time was no exception. Kahlil opened his eyes slowly, groggily. "Jesus, how long was I out?" He could tell instantly it'd been longer than the two or so hours he'd been planning on.

"Overnight," she answered him immediately. "You needed the rest."

"So did you!" he protested. "You're the one who's injured." He couldn't deny that he felt better, though.

"You can't take care of me like you want to unless you get the rest you needed."

Kahlil sighed. She was right, he knew. "Did you at least get a little more rest or were you awake the entire time?"

"I was your watcher," Niki said quietly. "I was supposed to stay awake."

"You must be feeling like shit right about now, then," Kahlil guessed. "Tell me you at least drank a little more of the water while I was out."

"I did drink a little of the water," she assured him.

"Good." He managed a faint smile as he wiped the sleep from his eyes. "How're you feeling? Aside from tired, that is. Head still bothering you?"

"Yeah it is. Vision got a little blurry but it could be that I'm tired."

"I want you to get some more rest. If it's still blurry after you get some sleep, then we'll worry."

"I can't yet," she said softly. "You wanted to go get more water. I'm not going to fall asleep while you're out there."

"But as soon as I'm back, it's more sleep for you," Kahlil said, reaching for the canteen and the empty one. "Deal?"

She gave him a wan smile. "Deal."

"Until I get back, you make yourself as comfortable as you can in here," he instructed as he got to his feet.

She nodded slowly. "All right. I'm going to move a bit back from the opening. No need to make it too easy for a predator to find me."

"Of course not," he said. "Want me to help you move or are you good on your own?"

She took a breath and tried to stand on her own and winced. "I'd appreciate the help." That was a good indication of how she was feeling.

Kahlil set the canteens aside and moved to help Niki move. "Okay, here we go... not too fast..."

She leaned against him, trying to keep most of her weight on her non-injured leg. "This is not something I ever wanted to have happen -- get wounded on the job."

"Wounded in the line of duty sucks," he agreed. "It sucks a lot."

"I'm only sorry that you got stuck here, too."

"I'm not," he said simply. "If I wasn't here, God only knows what would've happened to you."

"I love you so much."

"We make it home, I think we should move in together." Yes, Kahlil. Startling your shaky and physically unstable girlfriend was such a good idea.

She blinked at him and then blinked again. "Move in together?" Her voice was a squeak. "Are you teasing me?"

"Would I really tease you about something like that?"

"I... I'm not sure right now, love?" She said honestly. "Everything is so twisted up in my head right now." She looked into his eyes. "Do you really want me to?"

Kahlil stiffened. "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't," he said, his voice clipped.

Some kind of emotion flared in Niki's eyes at the tone of his voice and she stopped moving, pulling away from him and swallowing. "I think this is far enough from the mouth of the cave," she said, not looking at him as she leaned against the wall of the cave.

Kahlil was smart enough to know when he'd said something wrong. "I'm sorry," he said awkwardly. "I love you, Nik. Of course I want you to move in with me. But if you don't want to, I'll understand."

"My parents didn't get together until Mom and Dad -- Connor -- came back from being stuck on the other side of an anomaly. Mom and Connor didn't admit they loved each other until they were lost like that." Niki said quietly, not looking at him. Hopefully he would be quick enough to pick up on the fact that she thought he was only asking because of her being injured and them being stuck here.

And he was.

"But that's not our situation, love. It's a little too close for comfort, but it's not us. I knew well before we got stuck here that I love you and I knew well before we got stuck here that I want to be with you. I thought it'd give you something happy to worry about for the time being until I get back." Well, at least he was trying to explain himself.

"You sounded mad at me," she said quietly. "You know how much I love you. I just wasn't sure you wanted to deal with the reactions of our families for making that kind of commitment."

"It hurt that you actually had to ask if I was teasing you," he admitted, not looking away. "I know I picked a poor time to bring the subject up to begin with, but... it hurt and I lashed out and I'm sorry."

She swallowed and looked at him. "I asked because right now, love, I'm not sure what things I'm hearing and what I'm not." There. She confessed that there was more wrong from her head wound than the pain she had complained about. "It's like buzzing and voices and pain all at once. I asked because I didn't know if you said what I heard."

Well, didn't that just make him feel like a heel.

"Well, I said it," he said, giving her a faint but real smile. "And I'll say it again if you want me to. When I get back, you are _definitely_ taking a good solid nap and you don't get to argue with me about it. If that doesn't help your head... well, we'll worry about that step when we get there." He picked up the canteens again. "I'll try not to be gone too long, love, I know you're tired."

"Please be careful," she said softly. "Promise me that you'll be careful."

"I promise," he said solemnly. "I promise, Niki."

She smiled faintly at him and slid down the wall to sit. "I love you."

"Love you, too." He flashed her a grin and then was gone.

Niki watched him go, then leaned her head against her knee as she continued to watch the opening of the cave. She had to believe that he would be okay, because if anything happened to him, she wouldn't know what to do.

Besides feel even more guilt over the fact that he wouldn't even be in this situation if it hadn't been for her.


	5. Chapter 5

Kahlil was pretty sure he was an idiot. What had he been thinking, bringing up the whole subject of moving in while they were in the middle of something where they needed to be at the top of their game? Especially when Niki so obviously _wasn't_ at the top of her game, for all she was trying to hide it and downplay things.

But at least they'd parted with things all right between them, something he was grateful for. They couldn't afford fights or arguments right then. If she was unhappy with him -- which he wouldn't blame her for, really -- they could deal with it when they got home.

And not when. If. Because he refused to believe they wouldn't. Her family might not care that he was there, but they would definitely care that she was. Which meant that if they got her back, they'd get him back.

Which wasn't to say that someone wouldn't be tempted to leave him behind for a moment. But he trusted her family enough to get over that. Make him miserable later, maybe, but that was something he could deal with. He'd taken enough flak for being who he was.

As he reached the water site, his mind was on the situation he'd just left back at the cave, which was why he didn't pick up on the rustling of leaves. He filled the canteens quickly, wanting to get back to Niki as quickly as possible. She needed her rest, especially if they were going to figure out what was wrong with her head -- or try figuring it out, at any rate.

He capped the second canteen, stood with both in hand --

\-- and that would be when he caught the rustling of leaves.

Kahlil went tense, turning his head slightly, eyes searching the trees for what could have caused the noise.

From off to his left, something came rushing at him. Swearing -- but clutching the precious canteens in a death grip -- Kahlil took off at a run, not wanting to take the time to try and identify whatever it was that was chasing him.

The creature lunged for Kahlil, catching him roughly on the arm with its beak. As soon as that beak attempted to close around his arm, Kahlil crazily knew what it was -- gastornis, based on the vague glimpse he'd gotten and the way it was trying to break his arm. Luckily and thankfully, he was quick enough that all the gastornis managed was to take a rather large and bloody chunk out of his arm. Granted, that was bad enough, but it wouldn't be fatal.

He broke into a full-on sprint, darting around trees and jumping over fallen branches and covering whatever ground he had to in order to get away from the damn animal. Five minutes of that sprint had him feeling the blood loss, but it had also gotten him far enough away from the gastornis that he could slow to a walk. Thank God the creature was an ambush predator and not big on the chasing people for extended periods of time or Kahlil might be in trouble.

And he was in enough trouble as it was, with the way his arm was bleeding. If he didn't take care of it, there'd be even more complications of the situation. Logically he should have cleaned it off back at the water site, but he'd been infinitely more interested in getting away from the gastornis than he had been in stopping for something as at the time trivial as cleaning and bandaging his wound. Besides, he didn't think he'd be able to do it on his own. He'd need Niki's help, if she could manage it.

He was maybe fifty yards from the cave when he heard the one thing he'd been terrified of ever hearing.

A gunshot.

Pushing himself past the injury and the blood loss, he broke into a run. If Niki was shooting at something, then something had gotten into the cave. And if something had gotten into the cave, he had to pray that Niki could either take it out or chase it off. Preferably just chase it off; a dead creature in the cave would A: potentially screw with the fossil record and B: be a draw for predators. Including, potentially, more of the gastornis that'd gotten him.

"Niki?" he yelled as he reached the cave. "Niki, talk to me!"

God, he hoped she answered him.

 

Niki hadn't planned to close her eyes after Kahlil was out of sight, but she did. She was just in so much pain and so tired from trying to be strong and hide it from Kahlil. She knew he would probably take it badly -- or wrong -- when he found out that she had been hiding things from him, but she _was_ Abby Maitland's daughter. She had developed the skill to hide her feeling and her injuries from people close to her. She was also really good at the guilt and self-blame.

The earthquake hadn't been something that any of her team had expected when they went through the anomaly. They were going to do recon of the era and bring back samples for their scientists to examine and study. Getting caught in a natural disaster hadn't been part of the plans. She remembered the ground shaking and ordering her men back through to safety. The next thing she knew, she was falling and everything went dark. She hadn't blacked out for long because she heard Kahlil calling for her -- which meant he had only come through at that time.

She sighed. She had hurt him earlier, but how had he expected her to react? She was injured -- possibly worse than she let on to him -- and they were trapped. She wasn't sure of a lot of things going on right now and she certainly hadn't expected him to talk about them moving in together.

Especially here and now. She wondered if he had been taking lessons from Connor.

At the thought of her father, Niki could feel the burn of tears. They hadn't exactly parted on the best of terms and she really hoped that they would get the chance to fix things. Never once in her life could she remember her mother or either of her fathers being so unhappy with her that they had just walked away from her. She knew her parents had reasons to hate or fear Phillip Burton, but why couldn't they accept that Kahlil was nothing like his uncle? They might look alike, but they were two very different people!

The movement of something at the mouth of the cave caused her to open her eyes. She frowned watching the shadows at the cave opening. She knew it wasn't Kahlil because he would announce himself to make sure he didn't get shot. She tensed, slowly getting to her feet as quietly as she was able to. There was no way she could stay sitting on the ground and make an easy target.

When the creature came further into the cave, Niki bit the inside of her cheek. Borealosuchus. At least, that's what she thought it was. She watched it as she brought the gun up. The blasted thing must have been attracted by the smell of her blood. When it opened its mouth, she knew that he was about to charge at her. There was no way she could move fast enough to outrun the creature. However, there was the problem as to what would happen if she used a gun and what it would do to the fossil record.

Before Niki could make a decision, the creature charged at her. She dove to the side, bringing up her gun and firing at it. Screw the fossil record. She wasn't ready to become some creature's lunch. Her head hit the ground as she fired the gun and she swallowed the gasp of pain that went through her body as the rest of it hit the ground. She brought the gun up to fire again, seeing those teeth too close to her. The teeth came down into her arm as the creature's body collapsed.

Niki couldn't help the gasping sobs that came from her chest as she stared at the dead animal attached to her arm.

"Niki? Niki, talk to me!"

"Kahlil!" It wasn't so much of a shout as a cry in response to hearing his voice. "It's all right. It's dead."

Because that was going to make him feel so much better.

"Better it than you," Kahlil called back to her as he reached the cave and entered it slowly, trying not to look as shaky as he was starting to feel. "Are you all right, love?"

She kicked at the predator's body and then bit back a sound of pain as she tore the teeth out of her skin. "I'll live. He won't."

"We need to clean that up now," Kahlil said, gesturing to her arm as he dropped to his knees at her side, setting the canteens down.

This might have sounded better if not for the way his jacket was torn and bloody to match his arm.

Niki noticed that right away. "Kahlil! What happened to your arm? Oh god. We need to fix that."

"You're more important," he said firmly. "I'll be fine."

The look she gave him would probably have gutted him if she had the strength behind the glare. "Please, Kahlil." There was fear ... and guilt in her voice.

"... all right." The fact that he simply agreed and started gingerly peeling his jacket off spoke volumes as to how much pain he was really in.

She reached to take the jacket and her face paled even more. "Oh, love. Love, I'm sorry." She reached for one of the canteens so they could clean his arm.

"Being a creature snack wasn't on my list of ways I wanted to spend the day," he said dryly. "Let's get ourselves cleaned up, let me rest a bit, then I'll head back out on another water run."

"No," and that was clear panic in her voice. "Not again." That would be a telling sign that Niki was not and pulled together as she had been pretending to be to Kahlil.

"We're going to need the water, Niki," he reasoned, cooperatively holding his arm out so she could help him tend to it. "Especially if we take care of your arm, too."

He hated that panic in her voice, but now it was his turn to be the strong one. And that meant taking care of all their needs.

She hadn't been planning on taking care of her arm, but now that he had drawn attention to it, she knew that there was no way he wouldn't be making sure it was cleaned out.

"Let me clean this out for you and then there should be some kind of cloth in my pack that we can use as bandages."

"And then I'll worry about your arm for you." He gave her a gentle smile, though it was more than a bit tired and weary.

"All right," she said softly, pouring the water carefully over his wound. "What was it?"

"Gastornis, I think," he said, wincing slightly. "Ambush predator. Not good with the super fast speeds, which is probably why I was lucky enough to get away from it."

She swallowed. "Yeah. Terror birds are definitely ambush, They can't run for long or at high speeds."

"I don't think it's _too_ bad, though, considering." Oh, Kahlil, where did this optimistic streak come from?

"It could have been much worse," she said quietly as she carefully wrapped a bandage around his arm.

"It could've," he agreed. "Could've gotten my arm flat-out broken."

"I'm glad that didn't happen."

"So am I," he said. "Be that much harder to make sure you're safe if I had a broken arm." Even injured, his first thoughts and worries were still of her.

"If it wasn't for me you wouldn't be in this mess," she said tonelessly as she finished bandaging his arm.

"And if it wasn't for me, you'd probably be in a whole lot worse situation," Kahlil pointed out. "Trying to survive all on your own... at least now you've got me to take some of the burden."

"You got hurt."

"I'll be fine, though. I've been hurt worse in the line of duty, so to speak."

"But that was something you expected. You shouldn't get injured being trapped in your girlfriend's line of work."

"Niki, listen to me." His voice was firm but gentle. "I love you. I was _terrified_ when I thought you were going to be stuck here. All I could think about was getting to you. I was scared at the idea of you being alone, yeah, but I was scared even more at the idea of _me_ being alone. You're the most important person in my entire world. Without you, I don't have anything."

He brought his hand up gingerly to touch her face. "But even still, it was _my_ choice to come through that anomaly, and it was a choice I made gladly _because_ of the fact that you're the most important person in my world."

Niki searched his eyes for a moment and then leaned her face into his hand. "I'm scared I'm going to lose you, Kahlil. Even before this, I was afraid that I wasn't good enough for you and you would figure that out. Now, I'm afraid I'm going to get you killed."

"I can't think of a better way to die than in the name of keeping you safe," he said softly. "Not that I _want_ to, so don't even start thinking that, but if it happens... at least it'll be in the name of keeping you safe."

"I want to go home. I want us to both get home."

"We're going to, love. They'll find a way to get us home."

She would have nodded, but she was just too drained to move much right now. "How is your arm feeling now?"

"Sore," he said. "Really, really sore. But better than I was expecting it to." He gave her a Look. "Now your turn."

Niki hesitated only a moment before she stopped holding it close to her and held it out to Kahlil. It looked bad. She'd say it looked worse than what it was.

Kahlil forced himself not to go into overprotective mode like his instincts were telling him to. "Okay, it looks... well... it looks like you had teeth buried in your arm." He smiled weakly. "I'm sure it won't look that bad once we get it cleaned up."

"I'm sure it just looks bad. You know that there are a lot of vessels on the surface of your arms."

"You're probably right," he said, even as he examined the wound more closely as he cleaned it.

She would thank him later for buying into her lie. It was something she needed right now. "Crocodiles and their ancestors are vicious. Probably lucky I wasn't in the water when he found me."

"Not gonna lie to you, it doesn't look fantastic," he said as he finished pouring water over the wound. "But it doesn't look nearly as bad as I was expecting." Which was true enough in its own way.

She smiled faintly. "He expected an easy meal."

"But he didn't get it." Kahlil smile proudly as he bandaged the wound up. "Proud of you for that, love."

"The fossil record is going to be messed up."

"Not if I dig the bullets out of the damn thing." Kahlil looked as enthusiastic about the idea as he felt about it, which wasn't very.

"No. You're hurt, love," she said firmly. "When they come for us, they can retrieve that thing, too."

"I like that idea a whole lot better," he admitted. "Though mine's staying on the back burner." He'd do it if he had to.

"We should move it out of the cave, though," she said, forcing more strength into her words than she was feeling. "The blood will attract more predators and we can't afford for that to happen."

"No, we can't," he agreed, looking even less enthusiastic about moving the creature than he had been about digging the bullets out of it. "This is going to hurt so badly, isn't it?"

"Not much if we do it together," she said firmly.

Kahlil weighed which would be easier, letting Niki help or trying to keep her from it. Letting her help won, if only because the quicker they got it done, the quicker they could both relax. Well, such as it were.

Allowing Niki to help would be a lot easier than trying to prevent her from doing so. If she had to fight against him with that, then it was highly likely that she would end up hurting herself even more -- and that would make her condition a lot worse than they wanted it to be.

"All right," Kahlil said with a sigh. "Let's get this over with, shall we?"

Niki nodded, struggling to get to her feet without any help. Now that something had attacked Kahlil, she was going to be even more stubborn about trying not to lean too much on him.

"Let me help," he said, getting to his feet and holding his good hand out to her.

Taking a deep breath, she shook her head, forcing herself to her feet. "You're hurt."

"That was my good hand, love. You'd have been fine."

"Not worried about me," she said panting as she tried to catch her breath.

"Well, I am."

"Worried about you," she responded, straightening up.

"Niki, you're the one that's worse off," Kahlil said. "Even with my arm injury, you're still worse off. I'm not going to stop worrying about you."

"I know," she said, lifting her head to look into his face. "I would never ask you to, Kahlil. Just, right now, being stubborn is the only thing that is going to make my body cooperate to help you."

"Then let's keep being stubborn just a little longer," he said after a moment. "Get this godforsaken thing out of here and chuck it somewhere."

She nodded, moving slowly back to the creature that had tried to kill her and grabbing it's tail.

Kahlil moved to get a good grip on the front of the creature. "Okay, ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," she responded.

"Let's do this, then."

She nodded and started to tug the creature to the opening of the cave.

It took a few minutes of effort -- as well as copious swearing on both their parts -- but they finally managed to get the creature outside.

Niki insisted that they get the thing several feet away from the cave and when they had finally achieved that, she was out of breath and struggling to stay on her feet.

"Let me help you back to the cave, at least," Kahlil said softly. "You'll do no good to yourself if you fall over before you get back."

She nodded, not wasting her breath and talking. She knew she was in bad shape and if she argued with him, she'd reveal way too much about her condition.

He moved to her side and slipped his arm around her. "Don't be afraid to lean on me for a minute."

"Are you sure I won't hurt you?" Her voice was weaker than she would have liked it to be.

"I'm positive," he said. Even if it did hurt, though, he'd never let on. Not when she needed him.

She nodded and leaned against him. "Let me know if it hurts."

He bit back a sharp hiss of pain and shifted his arm slightly. That helped enough that he could start leading her back towards the cave.

Niki didn't hear the hiss of pain or else she wouldn't have leaned against him. They were inside the cave when she finally spoke again. "I hurt, Kahlil."

"I wish I could help," Kahlil said quietly. "I wish I could make the pain go away, make you better. But I can't. So what _can_ I do?"

"Just don't get eaten," she said quietly, her eyes slightly out of focus. "I don't want to lose you."

"I won't, love. I promise." And he'd be damned if he wasn't going to keep that promise.

They managed to get to the back of the cave where Niki felt the most comfortable and then she slid down the wall to sit.

Kahlil eased himself into a sitting position next to her. "We're going to get home, love. You know they won't leave us out here. And then we'll be able to get you proper medical treatment." Because he could no longer deny that she needed it.

Niki nodded slowly, closing her eyes. "Kahlil?" She said after a long moment of quiet.

"Yes, love?"

"If we ever get married, we are not going camping for the honeymoon." Her words were slightly slurred as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

He laughed softly. "I promise, no camping. Our honeymoon's going to involve an exceedingly nice hotel room and us spending lots of time in it."

"I like that idea. Lots of amenities."

"I'd be able to spoil you absolutely rotten, which you would deserve."

"I think I could look forward to that," she agreed, her voice trailing off for a moment.

"Feel free to look forward to it."

"What are you looking forward to?"

"It's silly, but... I'm really looking forward to getting to have time alone with you after this."

"That's not silly. I want to lay in bed and have you holding me and not being worried about closing my eyes."

"When we get home, we're taking a couple days and just laying around together." He chuckled softly. "I'd say throw some shagging into the mix because face it, this is us, but you'll still be too injured for it. So lots of cuddling instead. It's almost as good."

"Can you take that kind of time off from work?"

"They don't argue with me when I want time off."

"I'm glad of that, then."

"So am I." He'd fight for the time off if he had to, though. They'd need the time together after this was all said and done with.

"Do you think Dani is close to finding us a way home?"

"Either close or sleep-deprived from not finding one yet," Kahlil replied, trying for levity and not quite hitting it. "But it's Dani, so knowing her and the team she has access to... it should be soon."

"I'm not sure how much optimism I have left right now, Kahlil," Niki said, closing her eyes.

"That's why I'm here," he said gently. "I have enough for the both of us."

She leaned her head on his shoulder. "I'm just so tired. And I hurt so much."

"Go to sleep, love," he said softly. "I'm right here."

"I'm afraid I won't wake up if I do."

"Then talk to me. Keep talking, keep yourself awake," he suggested.

"Do you ever get scared?"

"I do," he said. "I'm just very good at not showing it."

"What are you afraid of?"

"Losing you."

"Not going anywhere."

"I know, but... part of me is very, very irrational about the idea."

"I love you too much to leave you, Kahlil."

"I know. I don't worry about you leaving me. I just... worry that your job will take you from me." But he got points for sounding reasonable about it and not all overprotective.

"It would take a lot more than my job to take me away from you."

"Not if your job gets you killed. Which is always a possibility."

It's a possibility with yours, too," she reminded him. "Just you know what to expect with mine."

"You must hate my job," he said.

She sighed. "I hate not knowing what it is or what you're doing sometimes, Kahlil. I expect I hate your job about the same amount as you hate mine."

"And I loathe your job sometimes," he admitted. "I'd never try and stop you from doing it, but... sometimes I really, really loathe it."

"Not counting this, what is it about my job that you hate so much?" She had dropped her head onto his shoulder.

"The uncertainty," he said after a moment. "The not knowing if you're going to have an uneventful day or if everything's going to go to hell in a handbasket."

She smiled faintly. "That can happen with any job or any person's life, you know?"

"Most people's jobs don't involve dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, though."

She didn't have an argument for that. "But it's something I've been around all of my life."

"I know, but it still scares me."

"It scares me sometimes, too, but I love it."

"Then that's what matters."

"Do you love your job?"

"Most of the time," he admitted. "Which doesn't speak well of me as a very nice person."

"You're a good person, Kahlil. I wouldn't love you if you weren't."

"I may be a good person, but I'm hardly a nice one most of the time." It was different when he was with her, though. She made him feel different.

She was quiet for a moment and then reached her hand out to take his gently. "But you have never done anything but be good and nice to me."

"I knew you were special the moment I saw you," he said, lacing their fingers together.

"I knew you were special and that I wanted you the first time you touched me."

"I wanted you, too. It's why I asked you out that same time."

"You never had any hesitation, even when you found out who my parents were," Niki said groggily. "I saw it in your eyes. You were worried about what might be said, but I saw how much you still wanted me."

"I'm a Burton, love. We don't let anything stand in the way of what we want. Only in this instance, it worked out for a good thing."

"You're a Kahlil," she said, her head drooping for a moment. "My Kahlil."

"Yours forever."

"It's getting dark. Have we really been talking that long?" It wasn't getting dark at all. "You know, because you risked your life to come after me, my mom is so going to suddenly become fiercely defensive of you."

"That might actually be scarier than her not liking me," he joked, hugging Niki against his side protectively.

"Mom is loyal and when people fight for her loved ones, she is their best weapon."

"Your mother is a remarkable woman. I've always thought that."

"She really is. She will try to keep her hurts buried, but her loyalty and her love shows through."

"Just goes to show you how badly she was hurt by my uncle... she tries keeping her hurts buried but they're so evident when I'm around."

"She doesn't mean to do that."

"Oh, I know," he assured her. "I'm just saying it's a really good measure of how badly she was hurt."

"She tries," Niki agreed.

"I'd like her to not be so hurt when I'm around. I know that's easier said than done, though."

"She'll get better, love, especially after we get home."

"I hope so, but if not... I'll live. I promise."

"It will be better," Niki insisted.

"I hope you're right, love. Be nice if you are."

"It will. She doesn't care about herself as much as she cares about her loved ones. You showed balls coming after me and she'll appreciate that."

"I wasn't going to leave you here alone."

"And I am so thankful for that. Being hurt out here alone would have killed me."

"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you," he said softly.

"The same thing that I would do if I lost you?"

"Probably," he agreed. "If that thing is fall apart, drink for a week, and be miserable for a good long while."

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Good thing we don't have to worry about it."

"No, we don't."

"They'll find a way to get us home."

"I know." Niki was silent for awhile. "I don't feel well, Kahlil."

"I know you don't, love. I know."

She sighed softly. "You're worried."

"Damn right I am."

"Why?"

"You're hurt. Possibly badly. You need medical treatment. Every moment you're not home getting the treatment you need is a moment there could be complications. And it kills me inside that there's nothing I can do for you about it."

"Kahlil... you are doing something for me, something that I need more than anything right now."

"I am?" he asked, trying to keep the doubt from his voice and not succeeding entirely.

"You are," she whispered. "You're here and you're giving me something to hold onto. You're showing me your love and you're keeping me warm."

"Wish I could do more, though."

"You're doing what I need to hold on."

He smiled sadly at that. "Then I'll do my best to keep doing it."

"With you holding me, nothing could take me away from you."

"I won't let anything happen to you, love. I promise."

"I know you won't. You never would."

"Because I love you."

"I love you, too."

Kahlil sighed. "Everything's going to be okay. I promise."

She leaned more into him, too tired to realize that she was putting more weight on him.

He winced slightly but took the weight. Her comfort was more important at the moment than his -- she was the one who was hurt worse, after all.

"I really do love you so much," she said quietly.

"I know, love," he said. "I've never doubted that."

"That's good then," Niki sighed softly, closing her eyes.

"I will never, ever doubt it," he promised.

"That's a good promise. I like that promise."

"I'll repeat it whenever you need me to."

Niki smiled and kissed his shoulder.

"We're going to get through this, love."

"I know," she murmured. "You wouldn't allow it to happen any other way."

"No, I wouldn't."

"Because when it comes to us, you're very stubborn." That was said with tired affection.

"Damn right I am."

"And mine."

"And yours," he agreed.

"I love you so much."

"I love you, too. I love you so much it's scary."

"I'm not afraid. Not when I have you."

"I don't ever want you to be afraid," Kahlil said quietly. "I want to protect you from everything bad in the world. I know I can't, but it doesn't stop me from wanting to."

"There will be times I need to fight on my own," Niki said softly. "But I don't mind being protected by y0u."

"Doesn't mean I can't _want_ to protect you, though, even if you have to fight on your own."

"That's a nice feeling."

"I can't be the only person who's ever wanted to protect you, though."

"No, but it's different because you aren't someone I've known my whole life."

"Hopefully you'll never mind my wanting to protect you."

"I won't. It feels nice," she murmured.

"It feels nice that you let me," he admitted.

"We need that with each other, I think."

"I think so, too."

Niki slumped against him a little more. "I hope Dani finds us soon," she murmured before she went silent.

"She will, love. She will."

Niki didn't answer him.

Kahlil's heart leapt into his throat as he checked Niki's pulse; steady enough, all things considered. Just asleep.

With Niki asleep -- or unconscious -- he was free to acknowledge just how badly his arm really hurt. He acknowledged it and shoved that fact aside. He still had to worry about Niki, no matter what.


	6. Chapter 6

Dani was exhausted.

Well, actually, she was so far past exhausted that she'd come around to being awake again. Second wind, forget it. She was on her third or fourth wind by now. There was no way she was going to sleep until her sister was safely home again.

A plan that might've succeeded if she didn't have a very, very persistent boyfriend/best friend.

"Dani, please," Henry said for what must have been the third time in as many hours. "You have to get some rest. You didn't sleep last night and you're half a step away from falling asleep where you sit."

"Am not," Dani said stubbornly.

Henry just gave her a Look. "Yes, you are," he said gently. "I understand it, Dani. I do. Niki's my cousin. She's family. I want her back just as badly as you do. But we can't figure out a way to get her back if you're so exhausted you can't think straight." He reached out to tuck a lock of her hair back behind one ear. "Do you want to run the risk of making a mistake?"

"Of course not," Dani said. "But Henry, I _can't_ sleep until we get her back. Every minute I'm not working on it is one more minute that something could happen to her there. One more minute where I might lose her. And I _can't_ lose her. She's my big sister and my best friend."

Henry sighed. He hated seeing Dani so torn up by this, but even more than that he hated not knowing what to do to help her or even _if_ there was anything he could do to help her. He was helpless, and helpless was not an emotion the Quinn men did well -- or at all, really.

"Then tell me what I can do," he said, running a hand over her hair. "I'm here, put me to use."

"Get me another cup of coffee?" Dani smiled tiredly. "I swear to God, I'm going to turn into a cup of coffee before this is all said and done with."

"Don't do that," Henry said with a faint laugh he didn't really feel. "Coffee doesn't have arms. It can't work the computers."

Dani laughed softly, which was pretty much what Henry had been aiming for.

"But yeah, I can make a coffee run," Henry said. "Want me to grab you something to eat, too?"

"It's tempting, but I'm so tired I'd probably just spill it on one of the computers and if I do that, Dad will kill me. I'm pushing it just having the coffee around."

"We all know how Uncle Connor is about the computers," Henry agreed. "Between him and Aunt Jess... yeah." He ran his hand over Dani's hair affectionately before stepping back. "I'll go do that coffee run, then. I've got my mobile; text if you think of anything else you want or need."

Dani nodded and turned her attention back to the computer in front of her, barely even noticing when

Henry walked away. She was too busy trying to keep her focus long enough to get something productive done. Damn it, why did this have to be so hard?

She should sleep, she knew she should. Her concentration was shot and she was probably missing things that she should easily be picking up on. But like she'd said, how could she possibly sleep when her sister was out there trapped in the past? Getting Niki back -- and Kahlil, too -- was infinitely more important than sleep.

She sighed, raked her fingers through her hair, and tilted her head as she considered a reading on the screen. If she tweaked the numbers, she might be able to...

A flash of inspiration hit; her fingers flew over the keys as she opened a program and ran a simulation. Yes, that might just work. She let out a triumphant cry and ran the simulation again just to make sure. This was too important to not be sure about.

She was working furiously when Henry returned ten minutes later. "Good news?" he asked, taking in the way she was focused on the screen in front of her.

"Maybe," Dani said distractedly, frowning slightly. "I think I've found a way to get them back."

Henry pressed the cup of coffee into Dani's hands. "Tell me."

"If I tweak these numbers and change the strength of this signal here," she said, pointing to the monitor, "then I might just be able to get the anomaly open and stable long enough to send a team through to retrieve them."

"Brilliant," Henry declared, pressing a kiss to the top of Dani's head. "That's my brilliant girl."

Dani grinned at him. "Always, love. Always."

 

 _Niki was dreaming._

 _She was no longer in pain and she didn't feel cold, either. In fact, she didn't feel anything at the moment. She was sure that she should be concerned about that, but right now she was trying to remember who and where she was._

 _She was standing on a cliff overlooking a valley. In the valley below there was a gathering of people. Some of them she knew personally, some of them she didn't know at all. There were a few people that she recognized as working at the ARC over the years in some capacity or another._

 _"It never gets easier, you know," a voice said from beside her. "Not for them and not for those of us that watch them."_

 _She turned to look at her side and was surprised to find someone standing next to her. She didn't know him personally, but she certainly knew him from pictures and stories her parents told sometimes._

 _"What doesn't get easier?"_

 _"Dealing with death," Stephen Hart said quietly._

 _"Whose death," she asked reluctantly, sure she wouldn't like the answer he gave her._

 _"Our death," he responded._

 _She had been right. She didn't like his answer. "I'm dead?"_

 _Stephen nodded. "You and your friend both."_

 _"Kahlil! What happened to Kahlil?! He was fine!"_

 _Stephen nodded his head to the two small trees that were growing together where the people had gathered. The people parted and she could see that they were in a graveyard. She recognized the graveyard and stared as Stephen continued speaking. "After he lost you, he just couldn't do it any longer."_

 _"Couldn't do what?"_

 _Stephen turned back to look at her. "God, you look so much like your mother."_

 _"Focus! What happened to Kahlil?"_

 _Stephen sighed. "You died out here. You were bleeding internally and neither you or Kahlil realized the extent of your injuries. You fought, god did you fight, but finally your body just shut down on you. Two weeks without medical treatment was just too much for your body. It just wasn't as strong as your will."_

 _Niki swallowed and then swallowed again. "Kahlil?"_

 _"Your sister managed to get the anomaly back open, but by the time the rescue team got to your location, you were gone and Kahlil wouldn't let go of your body." He looked at her. "Becker and Quinn had to shoot him full of tranquilizers in order to get him to let go and get you both to the hospital."_

 _Niki frowned. "Oh Kahlil."_

 _"He woke up in the hospital, but you didn't. Anderson was the one that gave him the news because the rest of your family was just too broken up to function very well for awhile."_

 _Niki felt tears sliding down her cheeks. "Kahlil must have been devastated."_

 _"He went crazy and was killed in a shoot-out." It was said in a gentle tone of voice._

 _"A shoot-out?"_

 _Stephen nodded. "He went after the security team leader that had led your team into an unstable anomaly to begin with. He and the other man got into a fire fight and both were killed."_

 _Niki couldn't breathe for a moment as pain gripped her heart over what Kahlil had gone through. "Oh god, love. My poor love." She managed to get her breathing under control and then looked at Stephen. "Why are you here?"_

 _"I was the one who has been dead the longest of our dysfunctional family. We decided that I would be the one who would help you."_

 _"Help me? I'm dead, apparently. How can you possibly help me with that?"_

 _Stephen looked at her for a long moment. "Yes, so like your mother. Beautiful, brave and stubborn as hell."_

 _"That doesn't answer my questions, Stephen."_

 _Stephen shook his head. "I know. It's just that I never expected to be having to do something like this for one of Abby's children."_

 _"Do what?"_

 _"Get you back to the crossroads so you can choose your way."_

 _Niki just looked at him in confusion._

 _"You've been stuck here in this place for several years because you got lost."_

 _"Years? But I was just in the cave talking to Kahlil!"_

 _"I told you that you got lost. It happens sometimes when people die and don't realize that they're dead. They get trapped. Time neither moves forward or back and in fact, they don't realize that time has passed at all." At the look of pain on Niki's face, he gave her a faint smile. "Yeah. You've been dead several years, six, to be accurate and Kahlil has been dead for five."_

 _"This... this isn't right. Kahlil shouldn't be dead -- not because of me. I need to fix this, help him in some way."_

 _"His death wasn't your fault, Nicole. There was nothing that you could have done."_

 _"I could have fought harder and not died," Niki snapped. "If I hadn't died, then he wouldn't have, either."_

 _Stephen gave her a faint smile. "That's what I thought you would say. In fact, that's what all of us thought you would say."_

 _"All of you?"_

 _Stephen nodded. "Me, Nick and Sarah. We knew that you would be more focused on saving Kahlil than in moving on to find your own peace."_

 _"I can't exactly find peace when my family is broken and the love of my life is dead because of me, now can I?!"_

 _"That's why I'm able to show you back to the crossroads and send you on the right path to go back home." At her incredulous look, he gave her a sad smile. "I would do whatever I could to spare Abby the pain she's going through right now. I can only give this gift once and there is no one I would rather share it with than one of Abby's children."_

 _"Why?" Niki asked quietly. "Why would you do this for me and not for Kahlil? What makes me so special? He died because of me and he's the one that you should send back."_

 _"I loved your mother, Nichole, and the fact of the matter is that I didn't tell her. I died and I watched her go through so much hell and finally find her happiness again. Losing you has shattered something inside her and Becker and Connor are worried about her state of mind."_

 _"Her state of mind?" She certainly didn't like the sound of that._

 _"I can't tell you anymore," he said gently. "Just trust me. Take my hand and trust me."_

 _Niki looked at him for a long moment and then placed her hand in his..._

"You're not allowed to get into a shoot-out and die on me, Kahlil," Niki murmured from somwhere in the depths of her unconsciousness and then went quiet again.

 

Kahlil didn't know what to do, felt helpless and didn't like it one bit. Niki was unconscious and there was nothing he could do for her. Nothing he could do except wait and worry and pray to a God he didn't entirely believe in that everything was going to work out.

Well, that and obsessively check their weapons over and over again. The guns had been laid out on the floor of the cave, all the better for Kahlil to check and double check and make sure each one was in proper working order. It was ridiculous, he knew, and it wasn't doing either of them a bit of good but at the same time, it was keeping him from sliding even further into shock. And the shock probably explained the obsessive checking and re-checking, now that he thought about it.

At the moment, he was standing and pacing restlessly, his injured arm cradled against his side. The bite had been worse than he'd thought, worse than he'd let on to Niki. He didn't think it'd gotten down to the muscle, but he was feeling the pain so badly that it was hard to tell. Either way, it was more pain than he wanted to be feeling. His pain meant he couldn't focus, couldn't focus on Niki and taking care of her and making sure she was going to be okay.

Kahlil shifted his arm, winced, and looked back to where Niki was now stretched out on the cave floor. She was so pale, so damn pale, pale and bloody and God, he hated seeing her like that. He hated not being able to do anything for her beyond walk and pace and stand guard as best he was able.

As he paced, he wondered if his uncle had heard about this yet, if he'd descended on the ARC in a self-righteous fury. Kahlil hoped not; dealing with Burton was the last thing that Niki's family needed, given everything he'd done to them.

Kahlil stopped pacing as a wave of dizziness hit him. Moving slowly, he made his way back to Niki's side and sat down carefully. He reached out to brush a strand of hair back from Niki's face. "It's going to be okay," he promised. "It's going to be okay. Dani's going to figure out how to get us home and we'll get you medical attention and you'll be perfectly fine."

His voice cracked slightly. "Because you have to survive, Nik. You have to. I can't do life without you. You're too goddamn important to me. I love you, Nik. I _need_ you."

Kahlil wasn't entirely sure he'd ever done a good job of showing Niki just how important she was to him, just how much she mattered to him. Their relationship was still too new even after several months for him to be entirely certain. But he did know that one thing was for sure -- he was head over heels in love with her, had been since the moment he'd first met her, and the idea of life without her terrified him to no end. She was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, he knew that already. The subject had come up between them a little bit ago and Niki hadn't seemed scared of the prospect. Of course, she'd also been in shock and sliding downhill fast. But he liked to think that at the very least, she didn't mind the idea.

it was something they'd have to discuss later, when they were home and had gotten patched up and were able to curl up in bed together and hide away from the world for a few days. Or weeks. Just then, the idea of hiding for a few weeks was ridiculously appealing. And he knew Niki would feel the same way.

"You're not allowed to get into a shoot-out and die on me, Kahlil."

He looked down at her in surprise, frowning. A shoot-out? He decided he officially didn't want to know where that had come from.

Niki didn't say anything else, but even in her unconscious state, she reached out for his warmth.

Kahlil reached out to take her hand in his. "I'm here, love," he whispered. "I'm here."

For a moment, it looked like she was going to open her eyes, but she just sighed and pressed his hand weakly.

Kahlil swore softly and squeezed her hand in return. "Come back to me, love. Please, come back to me. I need you."

Niki whispered something and moved her hand in his.

He tilted his head and leaned closer, trying to catch what she was saying.

"I love you."

"I love you, too, Nik," he said. "I love you so much."

She opened her eyes for a moment, but then sighed as she closed them again.

She'd opened them, though, and that gave Kahlil hope. He squeezed her hand again and sighed.

She swallowed and pulled his hand over to her cheek so that she could rest her face against him.

Kahlil shifted his position and sat closer to her, brushing his thumb against her cheek. "It's going to be okay," he promised.

"You... you need water." Her words were slurred, but at lease she had managed to say something.

"I'm not leaving you right now," he said. "Not while you're in this condition."

"You have to," Niki insisted.

"I'm not going to risk leaving you in this condition, Niki," he said. "I'm just not. Leaving you when you were injured was what got you even more hurt in the first place."

"Kahlil, we need water or we're going to die."

He knew she was right, but that didn't mean he liked this situation any better. "Promise me you'll be safe. Promise me."

"Put the gun on my stomach and my hand over it. Anything that comes in and doesn't identify itself will be shot."

Kahlil nodded slightly and reached for one of the guns, positioning it. "I'll try to be back as soon as I can."

"Be careful," she whispered.

"I will," he said with a nod. "I promise."

She managed to give him a faint smile.

Kahlil stood there a moment, just watching her, before gathering the canteens and leaving. He could only pray he wouldn't be gone too long.

When she heard him leave, Niki sighed and let the tears she had been hiding from him slip down her cheeks. She was in serious and pain and she was scared. She was scared for him more than for her, though. This was her job and the risk she took in her job. Kahlil was only here because he loved her.


	7. Chapter 7

What should've only been a maybe 45-minute trip for water took Kahlil nearly two and a half hours due to a combination of taking care to avoid creatures and having to stop rest because his arm was killing him.

"I'm back!" he called as he reached the mouth of the cave.

Niki made a soft sound in response.

Kahlil moved as quickly as he could without dropping the canteens; he set them down and moved to her side. "Niki? Talk to me, love."

"Hurts," she finally managed. "So tired."

"I know, love. I know." God, he hated that there was nothing else he could do or say.

"I want to sleep so badly, love."

"I know, love. Just hang in there. They'll get to us soon, I just know it."

"How long? How long have we been here?"

"Not long, love. It's just a couple days."

"Seems forever."

"I know." He sighed. "You've got to stay strong, though, Nik."

"I don't know if I can."

"You have to. Please?" His voice cracked. "For me. And if not for me, then for Dani."

Niki opened her eyes to look for him, but she couldn't keep them open. "Scared."

"I know you are," he said, reaching out to take her hand. "I know you are. And a little secret? So am I."

"You are?" She squeezed his hand weakly, but she held on.

"I am." He nodded. "Not because I might be stuck here. I'm a survivor. I could manage. No, I'm just scared of losing you. Especially to something we can't control."

"Love you."

"Love you, too," he said softly. "Now and always, Nik. Now and always."

"I need..." Niki's voice was hesitant. "How does your arm feel?"

"Sore, but not too bad," Kahlil said, lying through his teeth. "Using it helps keep it from getting too stiff, I think. Why? What do you need?"

"Hold me? If it won't hurt you." She needed an anchor to keep herself from going from sleep to coma from the shock her body was going into.

"All right, love." He sat and shifted into a better position before wrapping an arm around Niki. "That good?"

"Very good. You sure you're all right to do this?"

"I'm sure," he promised solemnly.

She leaned into him.

He shifted slightly and gathered her closer. "Worst date ever," he joked weakly.

"Next time we'll go to Tahiti."

"Tahiti sounds amazing, love."

"Walking on the beach in a tiny bikini."

"I _do_ like you in ridiculously small amounts of clothing," Kahlil murmured.

"Or no amounts of clothing."

"That, too." He managed a weak grin.

"I have a bikini that is nothing but chains and strings."

"You are _so_ going to wear that for me."

"I bought it for that purpose."

"You spoil me, love. You absolutely spoil me."

"No more than you spoil me."

"I do what I can."

"Amazing you."

Kahlil sighed. "I love you, Nik. I always, always will."

"Me, too. I loved you from the moment you first held me."

"There are going to be plenty of times in the future for me to hold you, too," he reassured her.

"I love it when you hold me."

"Good, because I like holding you," Kahlil said. "I like everything with you, but this might actually be my favorite thing we do. Because it's like you're trusting me to protect you. I know you are now, but all the time. Any time we just curl up, it's like you let yourself be vulnerable."

"Because I do trust you," she murmured. "I know that you wouldn't let anything happen to me and I can drop my guard."

"And you always have your guard up. I like seeing it down sometimes."

"Keep it up because of work."

"Oh, I know," he assured her. "And I don't mind. I just like being the one who gets to see you when your guard's down."

"Trust you not to think less of me."

"Never would," he promised. "Never ever."

"I know," she murmured. "That means a lot to me."

"You are my world, Niki. You're everything good about it."

"You're a wonderful man, love."

"Glad you think so."

"I know so." She was quiet for a moment. "I hope Dani gets the way home opened soon. I really miss my sister."

"I know you do, love. And I'm sure she misses you just as much."

 

Dani was vibrating with a nervous energy; she and Henry were on their way to the anomaly site and she could safely say that she was terrified of being unable to get the anomaly to open. Oh, she was confident in her abilities, yes, but that didn't make her any less irrationally terrified.

Henry, however, had the utmost confidence in his girlfriend. The way he saw it, she was too scared to think straight at the moment, and that was fine. She would work it out of her system in time, she always did on the rare occasions she was upset or worried about something. But until then, he would have confidence for the both of them. It was what he did in their relationship.

"Breathe, love," he murmured, reaching over to squeeze her hand. "Everything's going to be fine."

"What if I can't do it, Henry?" Dani asked, looking at him with troubled eyes. "What if I fail? What if my calculations were wrong? What if I made a mistake and we can't get it to work after all?"

"Then you'll go back to the ARC and sit down and figure it out," Henry said without even having to think about it. "You'll cry on my shoulder for a while and then you'll regroup and pull yourself together and attack the problem from some other angle. Like you always do."

Dani nodded slightly, knowing he was right but still feeling scared anyway. "I just don't want to let Mom and the Dads down."

"You won't, love," Henry said gently. "You could never let them down." He squeezed her hand gently. "Now, seriously. Breathe. Take a few deep breaths. It'll help."

Dani nodded again and took a deep breath. Henry was right. She could do this.

She _would_ do this.

Fifteen minutes later, they were at the anomaly site. She was working frantically to get the device to work properly and Henry was pacing slow circles around her, almost snarling at anybody who tried to approach her. His protective streak comforted Dani just then; he wouldn't let anybody distract her.

"Okay..." she said, taking another deep breath. "Here we go..." And with that, she hit a button.

The anomaly snapped open, wavered for a moment, and solidified.

"Do we have it?" someone yelled.

"Dani?" Henry looked to her for confirmation. "Do we have it?"

"We..." Dani looked at the results scrolling across her laptop's screen. "We have it."

"We've got it!" Henry yelled.

Dani let out a shaky breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. One problem down, another to be solved.

 

When they heard Henry yell that they had the anomaly opened, Abby immediately ran closer. She had already decided that she was going on the rescue mission -- no matter what others might say. It was the first time she had gone through an anomaly since the day she and Connor came back home, but that was her daughter out there.

Becker wasn't going to argue with her. Part of him wanted to, but he understood her need to go. So as he got ready, all he said was a simple, "Are you sure?"

Abby was keeping herself complete focused on her gear, but she couldn't hide her feelings from Becker. She lifted her head to meet his eyes -- hers filled with terror and worry. "I have to," she whispered in a very soft voice. "Our daughter is out there and if she's hurt, she needs her mother to step up and not hide like a coward."

"And I'll be right there with you," he said softly. "We're going to get her back, love."

She nodded, but her hands were shaking slightly as she finished buckling up the vest and then her guns. Her daughter and Kahlil Pierce had been out there for a week, now. She needed to pull herself together so that she would be in a shape to assist them.

"Abby..." Becker reached out to touch her arm gently. "You can do this, Abby my girl. I know you can." His voice was gentle as he spoke.

She looked at him, afraid to talk for fear that she would break down. She just hoped that she was glad that he was here because if she flipped out, he could calm her down.

"Ready?" he asked quietly. "It's time to go."

She nodded and then opened her mouth to say something. However, nothing came out and she nodded again.

Becker gave her a reassuring smile before moving away to issue orders to the rest of the rescue team.

Abby watched him go. She was beyond scared about going through an anomaly again and she was fighting to keep that fear in check. She needed to go and get her daughter safely back home. That didn't make facing an anomaly any easier. It just gave her a little more stubborn strength.

Becker finished with the rest of the team quickly -- there hadn't been much to tell them -- and then the team was on the move.

Abby fell into step near Becker. Her mind was focused completely on getting to Niki and Kahlil and then getting them the hell back home.

They were on the other side of the anomaly quickly; Becker brought the team to a halt as they stopped to get their bearings.

Abby stopped, trying to get her body to stop trembling as she looked around. Not like the nightmare she and Connor had gone through, but it was close enough.

Now that the team was actually through the anomaly, Becker let one of his men take point position; he moved to Abby's side quickly, seeing her trembles. "It's going to be okay," he murmured. "We're here now, we'll find them, we'll get them home. In and out."

Abby nodded, but her eyes were wider than normal and her face was pale. "Where do we go from here?"

"Where do you think we should go?" He knew that if he could refocus her energy, get her to concentrate on something, he could calm her down a little.

Abby looked around, looking for telltale signs of a quake or other disturbance in the rocks and the plant life. "Left," she finally whispered.

He called out orders to his men before giving Abby a gentle smile. "Let's go find them, love."

She gave him a faint smile and then set out with him to find their daughter.

It was only ten or fifteen minutes before they came upon a cave. "What do you think?" Becker asked. "Likely spot?"

She wet her lips and then nodded, finding that she couldn't speak. The cave looked like a place she would have taken shelter in.

"Check the cave!" Becker called.

"They might be unconscious or barely conscious," Abby whispered. "They have guns so if they hear something without the men identifying themselves..."

"Identify yourselves to them!" Becker called out. "I don't want to risk any of you getting hurt."

The point man called out and moved into the cave. A moment later, he called back, "Captain Becker, we have them!"

There was something in the man's voice that Becker didn't like, however.

Abby didn't wait, when she heard the point man, she started running in his direction.

Kahlil gave an almost feral snarl as someone ran into the cave; realizing that it was Abby didn't calm him any. He wasn't going to let go of Niki, no matter who wanted him to.

Abby approached him carefully. "Kahlil, you have to let go of her so the medic can check her out."

"I failed her, Abby. I couldn't keep her safe."

"That's not true," Abby said soothingly. "Kahlil, I know that's not true. She was hurt before you got to her."

"But she got hurt even worse after I got to her," he said, pain evident in his voice. "It's not because of me, but... I should've been able to keep her safe."

Abby knelt down next to him. "Listen to me. You did everything you could and she is probably only alive because you were here." God, please let her be right in that her daughter was alive. He face was white as she looked at Kahlil. "I know more than anyone how attacks can happen or injuries happen to blindside you. If she got hurt worse after you got here, that's not your fault -- especially since I can tell that you're hurt, too."

"I was on my way back from getting water," Kahlil said, his grip on Niki loosening slightly. "Got attacked. My arm's pretty bad off." Which wasn't keeping him from clinging to Niki.

"Which means you need to let go so the medic can check both of you out and we can get you back home."

"I'm scared." Kahil looked at Abby with pleading eyes. "I'm scared for the both of us."

"We'll take care of you both," Abby murmured, running her hand through his hair as she sometimes did to Henry's. "We'll get you both out of here and get you safely home. I promise."

"Promise?" He leaned towards Abby's touch, needing the comfort.

"I promise, hun. Let Niki's father take her and I'll help you out of here, too."

Uncertainty flashed in Kahlil's eyes, but he slowly relaxed his grip on Niki so Becker could take her.

It broke Abby's heart to see this man looking so scared. She was pretty sure that it was a side of him that no one but her daughter ever got to see. "Come on," she murmured, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "Let's get you out of here."

Kahlil nodded slightly, moving carefully as he tried getting to his feet. "Ow," he muttered. "Arm. Damn bite. I want to kill that damn thing."

Abby looked at his arm and paled a little more. "Terror Bird?"

"Yeah. Gastornis. I think." He managed to quirk a smile. "I'm not exactly up on my terror birds."

Abby gave him a small smile. "Those creatures are nasty. I've dealt with them before -- a long time ago."

"I'm just glad it didn't get me any worse than it did." And really, it'd gotten him pretty badly. Between the bite and a week of no medical attention, he was looking at physical therapy for a while, he figured.

"So am I, Kahlil," she said honestly.

He couldn't help looking at her in vague surprise.

"My daughter loves you and you risked your life for her."

"But you don't like me or my family." He moved slowly as they walked.

"I don't like your uncle." Abby's voice shook only slightly. "You're not him. He never would have gone after Niki."

"No, he wouldn't have," Kahlil agreed. "I love her, Abby. I love her so much."

She touched his uninjured arm. "I know."

"I want to marry her someday," he confided. "She knows, we talked about it a little this past week, but... I don't think she entirely seriously expects me to propose someday."

"Then you'll just have to convince her."

"And her family."

"Her fathers."

"But not her mother?" There was hope in his voice.

"Her mother doesn't need convincing."

Kahlil gave her a wan smile as they reached the medics. "Thank you, Abby. You've no idea what that means to me."

Abby gave him a small smile. "Don't give up on her, Kahlil. Her fathers... they'll come around."

"I'm stubborn, Abby. I won't give up on her."

She nodded. "I know. Now, let the medics take care of you."

Kahlil just nodded and let the medics check him out.


	8. Chapter 8

Abby watched him for a moment and then went to where they were strapping Niki to a platform for the ride to the medical facility that the ARC used.

"She's going to be fine," Becker said softly, reaching out to take Abby's hand in his. "We'll get her taken care of and she'll be fine." A pause. "How's Kahlil?"

"Worried about Niki," Abby said, trying not to collapse. "Terror Bird got him, but he'll be all right with some work."

"Good. She'll be happy to know that."

"He wants to marry her."

"Oh, hell no," was Becker's gut reaction.

Abby turned and looked up into his face. "He loves her, Hilary," she murmured softly so that no one else could hear her. "And he's not saying right away, just someday."

"If he's smart, it won't be any time soon."

"Hilary... he did for Niki what you would have done for me and Connor had you been able to."

"That doesn't mean I have to like him wanting to marry my daughter," Becker said, but his voice was weary.

"How can we be against it when he has already proven that he would die for her if he had to?"

"I'm not against it, exactly, I just... don't like it yet." Becker knew it wasn't very good logic, but it was what he had.

"He's not planning to do it, yet," she assured him.

"He'd better not be or else he's really not as smart as we thought he was."

Abby managed to smile, even if her nerves were stretched beyond the breaking point by having been through an anomaly. She tried to hide her hands from view so that Becker wouldn't see how close to breaking she was now that their daughter was safe.

"Come on, love," Becker said gently. "We need to let them take Niki and get back."

Abby nodded because if she tried talking she might embarrass herself.

Becker looked at Abby a moment before taking her hand in his and leading her back towards the anomaly. "Come on, love. Let's get you home."

She nodded, walking with him quietly as she kept a firm grip on his hand. Niki was safe and now she could go somewhere private and have her own little breakdown.

 

Connor was a bundle of nervous energy by the time the team got back to the ARC. He would've grabbed Becker to ask why Niki wasn't with them, but he saw Abby bolting past him first; he knew he needed to go after her, and so he did.

"Abby?" he called after her. "Abby ,wait up."

Abby didn't want to stop, but when she heard Connor, she forced herself to stand still until he could get to her side.

"What's wrong?" He looked at her anxiously. "You... they found them, didn't they?"

She nodded. "They'll be ok. They took them both to the medical facility."

"Oh, thank God." He was hit with an overwhelming wave of relief. "How about you? Are _you_ going to be okay?"

"I went through," she whispered.

"Oh, love..." He reached out and pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I should've gone through. I shouldn't have made you do it."

Abby clung tight to Connor. "D-didn't make me. You were needed here in case it shown signs of destabilizing."

"You shouldn't have had to go through, though," he said. "I know how scared you were."

"I went through and all I kept thinking was about before."

"But you did it, love. You went through and you came back this time. And now you can fall apart. But the important thing is that you didn't fall apart while you were on the other side."

"She needed her mother to be sane." Abby said, still clinging to him.

"And she got that. So now you can go somewhere and cry and fall apart and do everything you need to," Connor said, rubbing her back gently. "I'd like to be there when you do, but... if you want to be alone, I understand."

"Don't leave me."

"I won't," he said. "Just wanted to give you that option."

Abby stepped out of his arms and tugged on his hand to get him to follow her. They got to one of the empty storage rooms and Abby pulled him in there before locking the door and sliding down to the floor.

Connor sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. He said nothing, just held her.

That was when Abby broke down crying in his arms.

He simply held her, rocking her gently and letting her cry. He wanted to say something, anything at all, but he just didn't know what there was to say.

"I know she's safe now, but it all just came back."

"At least Hilary was there with you," Connor said softly. "At least you weren't alone."

"I c-couldn't have gone if I was alone." And that was what made her feel so ashamed. Her daughter was in trouble and she -- her mother!-- would not have been able to help her alone.

"Niki would understand," he soothed. "I know she would."

"I'm her mother and I should be able to do what she needs."

"What she needs is for you to be here for her now that she's home," Connor said gently. "And you can _do_ that."

She nodded, but she still felt miserable. "It was like it was hard for me to breathe on the other side, Conn."

"You were scared," he said. "I don't blame you. But you did it. You guys found them, got them home."

"She was hurt, but the medic said they would both be all right after a few days."

"Oh, thank God," Connor said, relieved. "Means I'll be able to apologize to her." Because he was still beating himself up over the way he'd just walked away from Niki.

"And to Kahlil," Abby said softly.

"Why am I apologizing to him?"

"Because we've been wrong and by hurting him, we've hurt Niki." Abby looked at him. "She loves him, Connor."

Connor sighed heavily. "I know she does," he said. "I know."

"He risked his life for her."

"I owe him. Big time." Connor sighed again.

"We all do," Abby said, her head against his chest.

"I still don't like him," Connor said. "But... I can be grateful for what he's done."

"We have to give him a chance," Abby whispered and the whisper was pleading. "For Niki. We can't keep punishing him for what his uncle did to us ... to me."

"I just want her to be happy," Connor said quietly. "But if she loves him and he loves her... I can give him a chance."

"He loves her. I saw that when we found them."

"I'll try giving him a chance. It's the best I can do."

She nodded. "That's all any of us can do."

"I just want her to be happy, Abby."

"Me, too."

"So... we'll try to trust him."

Abby nodded. "I think... I think he really would kill for her, Connor."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Connor sighed. "Just like Hilary and I would kill for you."

"Exactly what I thought."

"And that's the kind of person we want for her. I just don't want that person to be Burton's nephew."

"It's not our choice."

"Doesn't mean I can't have an opinion, though."

"Oh I'm sure you and Hilary have plenty," she teased gently.

"And about him, none of them are terribly flattering." Connor sighed heavily. "Does he make her happy, Abby? You've seen them together more than I have, even though you don't like him either, but... still, you'd know."

"Dani and Henry would know better than me, but she seems to be happy -- when she's not having to fight us about him."

He looked at her for a long moment. "And they love each other?"

She nodded slowly.

"God." Connor looked away. "This'd be so much easier if they didn't love each other."

"When has anything in our lives ever been easy?"

That brought a laugh from Connor. "Okay, point."

She nodded and then sighed. "We can think about them as a couple later," she said softly. "But I think for now we should go to the medical lab and sit with our daughter until she wakes up."

"You're right," Connor agreed. "We need to be with her."

"Connor?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being here," she murmured. "For loving me."

"You never need to thank me for that, Abby."

"I know, but I wanted to."

"In that case... you're welcome, love."

She smiled faintly, climbing slowly to her feet.

Connor stood and took his hand in hers. "Let's go, then."

She nodded and squeezed his hand.

He squeezed her hand in return and reached to open the door.

Abby was still dealing with her fear after going through the anomaly -- and the fear of losing her daughter -- but right now, she was just glad that Niki was home and was going to be all right.


End file.
